Still Waters 3 Side Stories: Book 2
by RedPBass
Summary: This is a collection of short stories focused around Book 2 of The Still Waters Series. Multiple genres and ratings. Same timeline as Still Waters 3. Features OCs alongside canon characters. The next story, Comparing Swords, featuring Asuna and the new class's Endo Haru, is up! Also, there's a bonus story at the end of the chapter.
1. What Friends Are For

_**Author's Notes**: Before you start reading, please understand that this is a collection of short stories taking place or relating to events taking place during Still Waters 3, Book 2. The individual stories will feature anything from backstory to OCs to crazy dreams and can be of any genre. If you have anything you'd like to see, let me know and I'll see what I can do._

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><p><span>Title<span>: What Friends Are For

Characters: Urashima Taro and Nakamura Sachiko, with mentions of Possum Cade

Genre: Angst/Friendship Through Pro Wrestling

Rated:T

Timeframe: The night before the festival, during the Pre Festival Party.

Spoilers: None, really, though it does hint around things that happened during the "Intruder" arc of Still Waters 3, Book 1.

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><p>Urashima Taro. The Street Sweeper. Star pupil of one Kagurazaka Asuna, ranked Executioner of the Shinmeiryu. A girl who routinely beat criminal thugs unconscious and took on street gangs for fun; the same girl who had taken out the infamous motorcycle gang, 'The Saitama Devils'...all of them.<p>

And here, the night before the yearly festival in Mahora, the infamous Taro-kun found herself sitting on a park bench all alone, looking down at her mother's medallion, an ugly little thing with a turtle on one side and concentric circles on the other. Sometimes she wondered why she even carried the stupid thing, but...

Her best friend Possum was gone.

Possum, the only girl out of the class she had been on speaking terms with for more than a few months, the only girl in the class she honestly felt she could trust to watch her back in a fight. The class rep Sachiko was good, true...this had been proven during their extensive training in Eva's resort. But Sachiko's fighting style required a lot of space; she wasn't the sort of person who could fight back to back. Kagami was also out of the question. Kagami was no slouch in the magic department, but close combat? Kagami would get creamed if she let someone competent get close enough. Possum and Taro had been together a long time, and they had developed an outstanding rapport with each other almost from the start. Each knew almost instinctively what the other was about to do; they were closer than many married couples.

And now Possum was gone.

If that idiot Rally was right, and Possum had become some sort of monster... She looked down at the turtle medallion again and rubbed her thumb over the turtle's dopey looking head and sighed. Possum was the first person she had let handle the medallion...

"Taro-san."

She looked up, somehow not surprised to find that it was the class rep, Nakamura Sachiko, who had snuck up on her. While many would point out Urashima Taro as the single most intimidating person in the class, few knew that she was routinely beaten in sparring sessions by none other than the quiet, elegant class rep. Sachiko was a far more dangerous fighter; she was near-silent in her movements, amazingly quick, and if she so chose, she could take out almost anyone with a single kick seemingly out of nowhere. Taro had yet to beat her even once out of dozens upon dozens of sparring sessions. "What is it?" she asked tiredly.

Sachiko stood there quietly for a moment before turning half away. "Walk with me," she said, looking off into the night.

Taro deftly slipped the medallion into her pocket and sluggishly pushed herself up off the bench. She followed along wordlessly a fair distance behind Sachiko, not really paying attention to anything as they walked. Luckily, Sachiko seemed to sense her mood and maintained her usual silence as she lead the way off the path and into the trees. Taro glanced back at the path out of habit to see if anyone had seen them, but it was, as usual so late in the day, deserted. She looked back at the class rep, who had stopped to wait for her, and continued on.

They walked on and on through the trees until the streetlights were out of sight and Taro could no longer hear anything but the sounds the two of them made as they moved though the light underbrush.

"Do you know where you're going?" Taro asked a moment later; she had become completely turned around, and with the trees blocking out the sky she couldn't even use her (extremely) limited knowledge of the stars to figure out which direction was which...she didn't relish the thought of being lost all night in the woods.

Sachiko glanced back at her and nodded, and continued on. And, sure enough, they soon reached a fair-sized clearing with an ancient, crumbling building that, upon glancing inside through one of the broken windows, looked like an old schoolhouse.

"This is pretty cool," Taro said, circling around the small building. "Possum would-" She cut herself off before she could finish. 'Possum would have loved to explore this place,' she thought.

"I found it last month," Sachiko said quietly, as if she hadn't heard what Taro had started to say. She moved out into the clearing and stood there, waiting.

Taro glanced over at her in confusion. "What? You...want to spar?" At Sachiko's nod, she just stood there, gaping. "Why?" she finally managed to say.

"Doesn't matter."

Taro frowned. So, the class rep wanted to spar, did she? She sighed and looked back in the direction she thought they might have come from. "Look, I'm really not in the mood to—_hey!_" she shouted, clumsily jerking back out of the range of Sachiko's sudden kick. "What are you doing? I said I don't want to—_gah_!" Taro scrambled back as Sachiko darted in and whirled, her kick taking Taro painfully in the side.

Sachiko danced lightly away, giving Taro all the space she needed to recover and easily avoiding her angry retaliatory swing. "It's okay," she said, watching Taro.

Taro stiffened and clenched her teeth. "Shut up!" she said, launching herself at the other girl. Sachiko easily slipped out of the way and kicked Taro's legs out from under her. Taro was up in a flash, going after her again.

Sachiko slipped aside again, the exact same way, and kicked Taro's legs out from under her again. "It will be okay. Even if-"

"SHUT UP!" Taro roared as she came up swinging. Sachiko began to move and Taro, recognizing the movement as the intro to that same kick to the legs, moved to block it and so was caught completely off guard when the class rep abruptly spun in an unexpected direction, reached out and grabbed Sachiko's shoulders, and vaulted up over her head. The next thing Taro knew, Sachiko was back to back behind her, their arms locked together, and then the girl leaned forward, lifting her up off the ground in an absurd variation of one of the exercises they often did in P.E. Taro flailed around as best she could, but somehow the other girl managed to keep her balanced. "Let _go _of me...!"

Sachiko ignored her. "It will be okay. Even if Possum-san _did_ turn into—ah...!" Taro had finally worked herself off balance enough to knock Sachiko herself off balance as well; her left leg folded under her and the two collapsed.

Taro scrambled to get some space between them, but Sachiko was after her in an instant, twisting her arms and legs and then fell back, rolling the two of them until Taro found herself lifted in the air above the other girl with her back stretched painfully. She clenched her teeth and let out a growl as she struggled to escape, but Sachiko's grip was like steel and she shifted with her, reading her movements easily.

"Even if Possum-san becomes a vampire, she will still be herself," Sachiko said, not sounding the least bit out of breath as she held Taro's squirming form suspended in the air above her.

"Shut _up!" _Taro bellowed, finally twisting enough to escape the wrestling hold. Sachiko's eyes widened slightly and she tried to roll out of the way, but Taro managed to get an arm around her middle and, roaring with the heat of the moment, lifted Sachiko up off the ground and swung her around, letting go mid-swing.

Sachiko snagged one of Taro's arms, dragging her off balance, and with an expert twist as she landed, dragged Taro down to the ground. The other girl grunted at the impact, but Sachiko didn't give her any time and moved down to her legs. Taro rolled over and tried to squirm away, but Sachiko snagged an arm around one of her knees and, with a quick motion, wrapped Taro's legs together, stuck the fallen girl's ankles under her arm, flipped her back over onto her stomach, sat back, and _pulled_.

"Gah...! Ow ow ow ow ow!"

Taro couldn't help but goggle at the bizarre situation. Sachiko, the class rep who, up until this point in their sparring matches, had never shown any inclination to do anything but jump and spin around and kick people, was fighting like a pro wrestler? That Suspended Surfboard move, or whatever it was called, was strange enough, but not this...? She yelped in real pain as Sachiko leaned back further for an instant, painfully straining Taro's lower back. Something about the way Sachiko had Taro's legs wrapped up was putting a lot of pressure on her right knee too; it felt almost like it was in danger of being popped out of joint.

"Owowowowowow!"

"Do I have your attention now?" Sachiko said quietly.

"OW! Dammit let up a little!" Taro demanded, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. She let out an unintentional sigh of relief when Sachiko gave her an inch or so, just enough to stop the stabbing pain. Nobody had caught her like this since Keitaro-nii...!

"We are tired of you seeing you like this," Sachiko said quietly, punctuating the end of the sentence with a quick pull that made Taro wince. "Stop moping. Even if Possum-san becomes a vampire, she will still be herself." Taro tensed up at that, so Sachiko gave her legs another quick tug and the trapped girl let out a yelp.

"Let go!"

"No." Sachiko's voice was soft, low, and brooked no arguments. "Not until you stop moping. You are doing no one any good like this, especially Possum-san. Everyone is worried about her, but she is intelligent; she can take care of herself." Sachiko pulled back on her legs again and Taro clenched her teeth to keep from crying out. The other girl's next words were spoken so quietly that Taro almost didn't hear them.

"I am worried about you, too."

The pain in her back and knee let up a little after that and she found she could think again. The class rep was worried about _her_? She was absurdly touched, and the tears that had been brought on earlier by pain started threatening to reappear for an altogether different reason. She quickly brought one of her hands up and rubbed them away before Sachiko could see them. She didn't know why, but for some reason she _really_ didn't want the class rep to see her crying at the moment.

When Taro maintained her silence for a moment, hitching her shoulders almost imperceptibly, Sachiko finally got up off her back and started loosening the wrestling hold. Taro took that opportunity to shove herself up off the ground, squirm around into position, and grab the other girl by the ankles. Sachiko let out a startled yelp of her own, the first Taro could remember her ever uttering, and hit the ground on her side. Taro didn't give her an instant to escape, instead forcing her legs into a hold similar to what Sachiko had done to her yet quite distinct from it, flipped Sachiko onto her stomach, and let out a victory whoop.

"Ah...AH...!" Sachiko yelped as Taro sat back to put on some more pressure.

"Ha!" Taro said, sounding and feeling more like herself than she had in _days_. "Everyone knows the Sharpshooter's better than the Texas Cloverleaf!" She cackled for a moment, pulling back enough to make Sachiko let out more of those pitiful little whimpering noises. She let up after a moment and released the other girl, moving quickly to get out of her range before Sachiko could try to get revenge. She wiped away more of those absurd tears as she looked at her...-what _was_ Sachiko to her, anyway? Class rep? Sparring partner? ...friend? She decided she liked the sound of that last one-...her _friend_. The closest friend she had made since Possum. Kagami was a friend too, but Taro felt an instinctive comradeship with Sachiko; they ran on the same level, they understood each other. Kagami was fun to run around with, but they didn't have much in common other than shared training in Eva's resort; Sachiko knew what loneliness was like. She wiped away more of those tears that refused to go away and turned away, hoping the class rep wouldn't see them.

Sachiko stood up and brushed the dirt and grass off her clothes, looking vaguely offended. Taro couldn't help but laugh at her expression when she looked back at her, an expression which, now that she got a good look at it, was suspiciously close to a pout.

"Sorry about all the trouble," Taro said as she focused her gaze on the old building to avoid looking at Sachiko. She felt the girl move up to stand beside her.

"Don't worry about Possum-san. She can take care of herself."

It took a moment for Taro to reply. "But...but what if..."

"What if she became a vampire?" Sachiko said, finishing Taro's question. "We will find a way to make sure she is okay."

Taro gave the other girl a curious look. "What does it matter to you? I don't think I've seen you say more than a dozen sentences to her."

Sachiko made an expression that Taro realized with real surprise was righteous indignation, almost hidden in the peaceful expression that Sachiko kept on her face at all times. "She is a classmate. A...a friend..." she said awkwardly.

Taro blinked at her for a moment, then turned her gaze back toward the building. 'So _that'_s how Sachiko sees it, huh?' she thought to herself. Taro herself had never thought about it before, but Sachiko apparently took her role as class rep very seriously. Taro's thoughts drifted back to Possum and she let out a sigh. She ignored the curious look Sachiko gave her. She knew Possum was strong and smart and could take care of herself, she _did_, but that didn't make her worry any less.

She sighed again.

"Thanks, Sachiko."

"You're welcome...Taro..." Sachiko replied softly a moment later.

"The festival starts tomorrow, huh?" Taro asked absently, looking up at the night sky. Sachiko nodded. "We'd better get back to the dorm then; I want to get a decent night's sleep before the first day events."


	2. BFF

_**Author's Notes**: This one is coming a little late, so keep in mind that this happens on the third day of the festival, just after Rosemary saves Fujiko and Ryoko from the two bounty hunters in Chapter 12 of Book 2._

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><p><span>Title<span>: BFF

Characters: Student Number 9 Hayashi Fujiko, Student Number 5 Rosemary Dean, and Yagi Ryoko

Genre: Friendship

Rated: Everyone

Timeframe: Afternoon on the Third Day of the Festival

Spoilers: Things that happened in Chapter 12 of Book 2

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><p>"So..." student number nine, Hayashi Fujiko, said as she sat on the bench, looking at the ice cream cone she held. To her right was a girl who seemed to be wearing some sort of witch cosplay complete with a broom and a big pointy hat, while a girl with cat ears and a tail sat on her left.<p>

"Yeah?" student number five, Rosemary Dean, authentic witch and transfer student from America, said as she looked up from her own ice cream cone, grinning wickedly as she eyed the other girl.

"So it's all...real, I guess," Fujiko said, unable to keep the bewilderment she felt out of her voice. "Magic and...and stuff," she said. "You're not just pulling some prank on me?"

"Ha! As if there could be any question," Rosemary replied, grinning even wider as she nodded toward the third girl seated on the bench.

Yagi Ryoko, a spirited young cat youkai girl, sat on the bench at Fujiko's left side, gleefully licking her ice cream and humming a tune while her long tail waved from side to side. "Mmmm~MMmm! This is so so SO good!" she said happily, as if she hadn't been saved from capture and possible death a mere ten minutes before. She was so wrapped up in her ice cream she didn't even seem to hear the conversation going on between the other two.

"Well yeah; I guess that's kind of obvious," Fujiko said in response to Rosemary as she looked at Ryoko's cat ears. One of them twitched. She had always loved the idea of heroes saving the weak from those who would hurt them; she supposed she got it from the Rider shows she had always watched with her father as a child. But this...the revelation that magic was a _real thing_ was just...she didn't know how she should react. She supposed she should have been shocked, or excited, or maybe even a little scared, but instead she felt...nothing much. If anything, she was confused. She knew that what she might think of as magic probably wasn't much like the real thing, but...still, it was interesting, she supposed. "Huh."

Rosemary shook her head and bit into her cone. After swallowing, she spoke up. "You know Hayashi, normally you'd think a person who just found out about something as awesome as magic would be a little more, oh, I dunno, _excited_, maybe," she said, laying on some extra sarcasm as she spoke. She grinned to show she didn't mean anything by it.

"You're right," Fujiko said. Her gaze strayed back to Ryoko, who had just finished her ice cream cone and was licking her fingers without a care in the world. The cat girl looked up at Fujiko, her eyes bright.

"Hm?"

Fujiko didn't say anything; instead, her gaze went to the youkai girl's tail as it swung leisurely around as if it had a mind of its own. Without thinking about what she was doing, she took hold of the youkai girl's tail.

Ryoko's response was immediate; she let out a startled yelp and jerked her tail out of Fujiko's grip, and clutched it to her chest while its tip lashed back and forth with considerable force.

"Don't do that!" Ryoko said, pouting angrily at Fujiko. "It's very sensitive..." she said as she turned her attention back to the end of her tail as it thrashed back and forth in her hands.

"A-ah, sorry about that. I didn't know," Fujiko said. Thinking about it, she supposed she wouldn't want someone pulling on her own tail...if she had had one.

"...it's alright," Ryoko said reluctantly, still pouting as she gave her tail one last pat and released it. She turned her attention back to Fujiko, a heavy blush on her cheeks. "Just don't do it again! That's boyfriend and girlfriend stuff!" she said as she wagged her finger at the other girl.

Fujiko just stared at her, her eyes wide as she realized what she had done. She tried to shoot a glare at Rosemary when the witch girl broke down laughing, but it only served to make her laugh harder.

When everyone had calmed down several minutes later, Rosemary leaned forward to look at Ryoko. "Hey, who were those two guys anyway?" she asked. "The ones who cornered you in that alley, I mean."

"I don't know," Ryoko said, looking troubled. "They just came out of nowhere and I didn't know what to do! But then _you _did too, Fu-chan," she said, looking at Fujiko with eyes shining with admiration.

Fujiko looked down at her knees to hide how awkward she felt at the cat girl's friendly manner.

"And then Ro-chan came too, and both of you were really cool!" Ryoko said, smiling at the two human girls.

Rosemary's face flushed and she quickly turned away.

"R-really?" Fujiko asked, clearly intrigued.

"Yeah!" Ryoko answered, beaming at her.

Rosemary reluctantly nodded. "I saw them corner her down there, but I probably would have been, well...too afraid to do something about it myself," she said reluctantly.

"Both of you are my heroes!" Ryoko said as she stood up from the bench and moved to stand in front of Rosemary and Fujiko.. "And now you're my best friends, right?" she said brightly as she took each girl's hand in her own as she smiled.

Fujiko glanced over at Rosemary and saw she was just as taken aback as she herself was. Rosemary glanced over at her and made a lopsided smile, and turned back to Ryoko.

"Sure thing, Ryoko. Friends for life, right?" she said, glancing over at Fujiko again.

Fujiko let out a hesitant grin. "Yeah...I don't think there's anything wrong with that," she said, lightening up a little. She glanced at Rosemary, a girl she had rarely ever spoken with in the past, and grinned at her as well. "Yeah...friends, huh?" she said, almost to herself. She hadn't ever really had many friends before, and this seemed...interesting? '_Yeah, that's the word,'_ she thought, smiling slightly. "Might be fun," she said aloud as she looked at Rosemary teasing Ryoko about the size of her ears. She grinned. "Lots of fun."


	3. Out of the Loop

Title: Out of the Loop

Characters: Saotome Haruna and Kugimiya Madoka

Genre: General, I guess?

Rated: T, for hints of adult material.

Timeframe: Still Waters 3 Book 2, The morning of the third day of the festival.

Spoilers: Just for Madoka and Misa ever since Still Waters 2

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><p>"You!"<p>

Madoka paused for a moment and looked up from the band application form Misa had forgotten to fill out a week ago only to see Haruna, standing in the doorway and pointing in her general direction. She looked around her to both sides, then back over at Haruna, who, she noted with trepidation, wore a calculating grin. "...me?"

"Yes you! Who else?" Haruna declared as she stepped into the small office currently assigned to the manager of the band stage, who looked stunned as he sat in his chair, his gaze going from Haruna to Madoka and back.

"Kugimiya-san, do you...know this woman?"

Madoka heaved a sigh as Haruna stalked over, and turned her attention back to the manager. "Unfortunately yes, I do. She's...an old friend," she said reluctantly. "Anyway, here is our form; thanks again for letting me fill it out so late. I'm sorry Misa forgot about it," she said, giving a slight bow.

The manager looked over the sheet of paper and shrugged. "Don't worry about it, Kugimiya-san. What would I do if the most popular band here wasn't allowed to play because of a mistake with the paperwork? In any case, this is all we need; I will be looking forward to your performance this afternoon," he said. Madoka said her goodbyes, and finally stepped outside with Haruna.

"So-"

"Are you busy?" Haruna asked. "This morning? Right now?" she said, getting _far_ too close in Madoka's opinion. Madoka didn't really like the crazed look in her eye, either. One too many sugar and caffeine-fueled late night manga drawing sessions, no doubt.

"Er...not really, not right _now_, but-"

"Great!" Haruna said, grabbing her hand. "Come on! My assistant ran out on me and there's no time to waste!"

"W-wait!" Madoka said as Haruna set off down the sidewalk at a quick pace, dragging her along behind.

"There's no time to wait either!" Haruna said, barely taking the time to pause at an intersection before zipping across with Madoka in tow. Madoka narrowly managed to avoid a delivery truck, which beeped loudly at the two of them. Haruna didn't even seem to notice it.

"What do you mean? What are you even _talking _about?!"

Haruna looked back at her, grinning. "Something fun!"

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><p>Madoka glared.<p>

Haruna grinned.

Madoka heaved a much-put-upon sigh. "So what you really wanted was help with selling your stuff at the doujin market? You dragged me here instead of band practice, where I'm _supposed to be right now_, since, you know, we have a _really big show_ to play this afternoon, just to help you sell your freaking perverted comics? Seriously? _Seriously?!_"

Haruna shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much." She grinned.

Madoka glared at her.

Haruna gave her a thumbs up.

Madoka began to falter.

"See? It's not a problem! Just hang around here for a while and you'll see! Now come on, sit down and get comfortable while you can; they're about to open the doors."

Madoka gave her an odd look. "What are you talking about? And what is that rumbling sound...?" she asked, but Haruna was too busy making sure the strap on her combat helmet was tightened properly to give Madoka an answer. "Okay, seriously, what's up with the helmet?" Madoka demanded. Haruna's only response was to pass Madoka a helmet of her own, and point toward the front of the convention hall.

Madoka looked from the helmet to Haruna's pointing finger, then to the front of the hall, where a tidal wave of humanity roared through the now-open doorway. She only had time for her eyes to widen in horror before they were upon them.

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><p>"I am going to kill you," Madoka gasped in between long pulls from the bottle of water she held.<p>

"What, you think that's the first time I've heard that?" Haruna said, grinning as she thumbed through the stack of cash she held. She quickly stuffed it into a small cashbox and locked it. "How often do you think I sell doujinshi anyway?"

Madoka slumped in her chair. "I can't believe I'm so tired just from _that_..."

Haruna shrugged. "That's a comic convention for ya."

Madoka slumped further on her folding chair. "Is it like this every time?"

Haruna paused in the act of packing up the gifts other artists had given her and looked up, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Yeah."

Madoka groaned. "You do realize I'm never, ever, _ever_, going to trust you again, right?"

Haruna's grin widened. "You think it's the first time I've ever heard that?" she asked, repeating her earlier question. "In fact I think it's the third time I've heard it from you, Kugimin~"

"Don't call me Kugimin."

"And about the millionth time for that," Haruna said, laughing. "Oh, and you didn't get to look at this year's book, did you?" she asked, holding up a copy of the book she had drawn. Madoka shook her head, and Haruna tossed the book into her lap. "Have fun~" she said as she took up her cashbox and hid it among the rest of the supplies she had brought.

"Um..." Madoka said as she looked at the cover of the book. From what Madoka could tell, the main character was a certain magical witch character Haruna used in one of her professionally created manga who was pretty blatantly based off of Misa. But... "What's with this title? 'Chocolate Covered Banana'?" She opened the cover and saw the two dreaded words on the first page: Adults Only. When she looked up toward where she had last seen Haruna to demand an explanation, Haruna was long gone.

"Oh, hell." She hadn't had a chance to actually _look_ at it before now; she had been too busy selling thousands of copies to the flood of customers who had swarmed Haruna's table. "I should have expected something like this..."

Madoka flipped to the next page, straight into a shower scene. "What the...the...huh..." It really _did_ look like Misa, even down to that mole on her—Madoka shut the book and looked around. Nobody was lurking around Haruna's wall table since she had sold all ten thousand copies of her book in a couple hours, so Madoka took the book and left.

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><p>"Oh...oh wow, this really <em>is<em> interesting," Madoka said as she walked along the sidewalk, her nose buried in Haruna's new doujinshi. The heroine, Magical Girl Misa (what an imaginative name, Madoka thought as she rolled her eyes), had finally been cornered by Magical Teacher Onion-sensei (who had just drunk a love potion intended for someone else) in the kitchen of her house when a new character, the masked hero The Ace of Hearts, who bore an astonishing resemblance to Madoka herself, appeared...

Madoka groaned as she looked away from the book. That whole Ace of Spades thing was _never_ going to go away...! She looked back at the comic, and found herself blushing as Ace of Hearts was promptly pinned between Magical Girl Misa and Onion-sensei, who had tripped over nothing, apparently.

Madoka's face got redder and redder as she continued on from page to page until she reached the page where Ace of Hearts's underwear—she snapped the book shut and stalked along the sidewalk, red faced and refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

"I am going to _kill _her for this...!" Madoka muttered under her breath. But...her fingers twitched as she clutched the book. "Maybe after I finish reading..."

She didn't even notice the camera drone hovering nearby.

* * *

><p>Haruna's cell phone rang; she put down her cup of espresso to answer it. "Hello? Asakura? How is it?" she asked excitedly. Some of the other patrons of the coffee shop gave her odd looks, but she ignored them.<p>

"_**Yeah, it's me. Madoka's reading the book; she seems pretty into it." **_Kazumi's voice sounded bored as it came through the cell phone.

"Hu hu hu," Haruna laughed. "Number fourteen on the list of things I've always wanted to say: _Just as planned! _Now that my evil plan has begun, there will be no stopping it!" Several other customers scooted further away from Haruna's table.

"_**...evil plan? What are you talking about?"**_

"What am I talking about?" Haruna repeated. "Well, only my evil plan to force Kugimin and Misa to hook up and then join Negi-kun's harem, that's all," she said, puffing her chest out in pride. "I even went so far as to give my assistant the day off, during a comic convention even! Now all it'll take is a few more little pushes here and there, and then I'll have to arrange the blackout-"

"_**Haruna," **_Kazumi said.

"-and figure out a way to get a waterbed into that storage room-"

"_**Haruna," **_Kazumi said again.

"-and I'll also have to work on Misa, but that should be pretty easy; I've always thought she seemed a little bi-"

"_**Hey, PARU!"**_ Kazumi yelled through the phone to get her attention

"Yes, Kazumin?" Haruna replied, grinning as she picked up her cup of espresso and took another sip.

"_**Don't call me Kazumin. And you're too late, Madoka and Misa are already together; they have been for years."**_

Haruna's espresso spewed halfway across the coffee shop.

"_WHAT_?! No way!"

"_**Yes way," **_Kazumi replied, sounding tired. **_"How can you NOT know? Everybody knows! Aren't you supposed to be able to smell the 'stench of love' or whatever you call it?"_**

Haruna just stared off into space, wide eyed. '_Madoka and Misa are...already together? Then...then that means my ridiculously circuitous plan is...useless?' _ "Wait," she said into the phone. "So when you say 'everybody', do you mean _everybody_?"

"_**Yeah, everybody."**_

"Yuecchi?"

"_**Yes."**_

"Asuna?"

"_**She was actually one of the first to figure it out."**_

"Honya? Maki-chan? Iincho?!" Haruna said with increasing volume until she smacked her hand hard on the table top and she shot up out of her seat. By this point, the employees of the coffee shop were discussing how best to get rid of the crazy person running off all their customers.

"_**That'd be yes, yes, and yes, though Ayaka's not a class rep anymore so you probably shouldn't call her 'Iincho'."**_

"N...no way..." Haruna said.

"_**I'm pretty sure even Anya knows, and she barely ever comes to Japan. Face it, Paru. You've fallen out of the loop."**_

Haruna looked at her cell phone in shock. "N...no...NOOOO...!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's notes<strong>: ...I'm sorry._


	4. Sisters

Title: Sisters

Characters: Lucy Cade, Kakizaki Hatsune, and Nekane Springfield

Genre: Friendship

Rated: G

Timeframe: The third day of the festival in Book 2 (this side story happens during Chapter 13)

Spoilers: What happened the previous two days of the festival. It helps if you've read the story up to that point.

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><p>"So," Lucy Cade said as she sat down with her drink at her table at the small outdoor cafe she had frequented since arriving in Mahora. "How did you end up looking like that?" she asked the bruised and sore looking woman seated across from her. When she arrived at the balcony cafe earlier, Lucy had found the woman seated at Lucy's usual table and, instead of choosing another, had sat down across from her and begun to chat. Lucy knew she herself wasn't quite as friendly as her little sister Possum, but she wasn't averse to the occasional conversation with a stranger.<p>

Kakizaki Hatsune grinned crookedly in spite of the way it made her face hurt. "I was trying to teach my little sister a lesson," she said ruefully.

Lucy grinned in response and she took a sip of her drink. From what she could tell, Hatsune hadn't touched her own drink since she introduced herself. "Guess she taught you a lesson instead, huh?"

"No," Hatsune replied, shaking her head, that rueful grin still in place. "Her girlfriend did."

Lucy snorted in amusement and took another sip of her drink. She could still recall the first time Possum had 'taught her a lesson' instead of the other way around; she had been itchy for _days_ after _that_ fiasco. Possum had a much greater grasp of creating powders than she did, especially those that caused the victim to feel as if they had just run naked through a patch of poison ivy...

After a moment, Lucy noticed a pretty young foreign woman with long blonde hair seated alone at a nearby table who kept glancing over at them. She glanced at Hatsune and motioned with her eyes at the stranger. Hatsune shrugged and finally took a sip of her drink. Lucy shrugged; Hatsune had left it up to her. Waiting for the right timing, Lucy looked up at the same instant as the foreign woman, caught her watching, and grinned. "Gotcha," she said aloud. "Do I know you?" she asked pleasantly. The woman was somewhat familiar, though Lucy couldn't recall ever meeting her before.

The woman blushed in embarrassment, but smiled back anyway. "Hello...are you by any chance related to Kakizaki Misa?" she asked, looking at Hatsune.

Hatsune's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Yes...yes I am. She is my little sister. How did you know?" Hatsune was curious; her personality tended to blind other people to any family resemblance between herself and her half-sister Misa. "I am Kakizaki Hatsune."

"Lucy Cade," Lucy said, already up and grabbing another chair from a nearby table. She pushed it into place at her table while the woman hesitantly approached. Lucy waited until the stranger had seated herself before sitting back down in her own chair.

"And you are...?" Hatsune asked.

"Nekane Springfield," the foreign woman said, smiling prettily as she took a sip of the tea she had brought over from her own table. "I know Misa-chan through—"

"Negi Springfield," Lucy said, grinning. "What are you, his sister?"

"A cousin, actually," Nekane said. "How did you...?" she trailed off.

"Know?" Lucy supplied. Nekane nodded. "My little sister's in his class; er...yeah..." she said, her spirits drooping as she recalled the fact that Possum was still missing.

"Ah! Then you would be little Possum's sister?" Nekane said, clapping her hands together in front of her as she smiled.

"Er...yeah," Lucy said, unable to recover her former good cheer though she made a good try at it. "How did you know?"

"Negi-kun mentions her often in his letters," Nekane said pleasantly.

"All good, I hope?" Lucy asked.

Nekane looked away, then back evasively as a slight blush appeared on her face. "He says she is very...very spirited."

"Well that's one way to put it, I suppose," Hatsune said, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Lucy.

Lucy scowled at Hatsune, but the expression lacked any strong feeling. "That bad, huh?" she asked Nekane.

Nekane nodded regretfully. "I'm afraid so. He often mentions her in connection with another girl, Urashima Taro, I think...?" she said hesitantly, looking up at the sky and squinting cutely as she tried to recall what were to her foreign names. "Nakamura...Sachiko? Yes, and Mochizuki Kagami. He says they are all quite spirited."

"Sounds like the usual suspects," Lucy said, rolling her eyes as she made a half-hearted grin.

"Has she been found yet?" Nekane asked, looking concerned.

Lucy looked away as Nekane and Hatsune both turned their attention on her. "No... I know she can take care of herself, but I can't help but worry..." She trailed off as someone took her hand. Looking back at her table mates, she saw Nekane leaning across the table, holding Lucy's hands in her own.

"It will be okay, Lucy. You have to believe in Negi; if anyone can help her, he can."

"Well..." Lucy said.

"She's probably right," Hatsune offered as she sat back in her chair. She paused to take a sip of her drink before continuing. "I did a lot of research before I came down from Hokkaido; Negi Springfield is certainly capable. I have no doubt she will be found soon."

Lucy looked from Hatsune's confident expression to Nekane's ever-cheerful face and sighed; she just couldn't stay depressed after such an assault. It didn't stop her from worrying, though... "Yeah...you two are probably right. Besides, I always thought the same thing; the kid's resourceful, you know," she said, referring to Negi. Hatsune nodded while Nekane beamed at her in the way only a big sister can when someone compliments their beloved sibling.

"Well, it was nice meeting you two, but I am afraid I must be going; there is a band I want to see playing in thirty minutes, and I should have already gone," Hatsune said, standing up.

"See ya," Lucy said, waving.

"It was nice meeting you!" Nekane said pleasantly.

"Heh...I guess it was, wasn't it?" Hatsune said, grinning as she looked down at the other two. She took out a piece of paper and a pencil and scribbled down her phone number. "Here, give me a call if you ever need anything, either one of you; I may not but able to help you personally, but if I can't, I can point you in the direction of someone who can," she said, then nodded at Lucy and Nekane and strolled away.

"Well, she's something else, all right," Lucy said, watching Hatsune go. She took a moment to copy the woman's number down and added it to her cell phone, then pushed the paper over to Nekane, who put it into her pocket. "I've gotta go too; it was nice meeting you, Nekane," she said, standing up and holding out her hand.

Nekane took her hand as she stood up and smiled brightly. "It was nice meeting you too! Would you care to...?"

"Oh, you want my number? Sure, hang on a sec," Lucy said as she dug in her pockets for paper and pencil herself. When she had exchanged numbers with the friendly woman, she pocketed the slip of paper with her new friend's information on it.

"Good luck finding your sister," Nekane said politely.

"Thanks," Lucy said, giving the other woman a half-hearted smile. "If you ever need any special charms or powders made, I'm your girl!" she said. "I can even read your palm, if you want. See you around?"

Nekane gave her a bright smile. "I'll be returning to Wales soon, but...I'll keep it in mind!"

Lucy nodded at the woman and waved as she walked away. Lucy stood up just as a waiter appeared to check up on the table, and made her way down to street level. She paused before moving onto the sidewalk. Poor Possum...kidnapped! No one had come out and actually _told_ Lucy her little sister had been kidnapped, but it was easy enough to piece together from the little clues everyone had let slip. But...what Hatsune and Nekane had said earlier was true: Negi Springfield _was_ resourceful, and had great resources both within the city and without. He had access to far greater resources than Lucy herself did; one didn't poke their nose into matters involving mid or high level magic officials when one was a skilled rootworker and Hoodoo specialist like she was, not if one wished to avoid being turned into an ermine. But...poor Possum. Lucy heaved a sigh and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

She would continue her search, and the others would continue theirs, and they would exchange information as it came up, all while neglecting to mention the fact that Possum was also a skilled rootworker and Hoodoo user. She grinned. Those mages who focused so much on law and order could be a little crooked as well. Her little sister _would_ be found; if not by her, then by someone else. Possum was strong; stronger than she was herself. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if- Her thoughts were interrupted by her cell phone ringing. She pulled it out and flipped it open. "Hello?"

**_"Lucy Cade?"_**the speaker sounded familiar; Lucy thought she might have been that Asakura woman that hung around with Negi sometimes.

Lucy frowned. "Yes? I'm Lucy. Is something wrong?"

**_"We found her."_**


	5. Youkai Rangers!

_**Author's Note**: Before you read this, please be aware that this is being posted long after the chapter it's related to. Sorry about that. If you're confused, you might want to go back and read Still Waters 3, Book 2, Chapter 14: Youkai Festival; otherwise you probably won't understand what's going on. For the sake of reference, I'll add some brief character profiles at the end._

* * *

><p><span>Title<span>: Youkai Rangers...?!

Characters: Endo Haru, Yagi Ryoko, Rex Crimson, Thorne, Nevon Bayle

Genre: General

Rated: Everyone

Timeframe: Nighttime, early morning of the last day of the Youkai Festival

Spoilers: For what happened in Still Waters 3, Book 2, Chapter 14: Youkai Festival

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><p><em>Monday, July 6th, 2009<em>

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><p>Haru's eyes snapped open.<p>

She looked around in the darkness for a moment, disoriented. She had just been running through the forest, the scent of her terrified prey strong in his nose, her brothers and sisters running beside her-

She shivered and pulled her blanket up to cover half her face. '_Just a dream..._' she _hated_ those wolf dreams. She wasn't a hunter, she was just a girl who liked to ride bicycles. So what if she was part youkai? She was still just a normal girl who liked to go out and play in the city with her friends!

With her heartbeat finally slowing down, she grabbed her cell phone from under her pillow and looked at the time. '_Almost one o'clock,' _she thought, frowning at the cell phone. She had school the next day; she couldn't afford to be waking up in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, waking up from that dream the way she had had left her wide awake; there was no way she'd get back to sleep any time soon. But...why had she woken up so suddenly? Had it been the dream? Somehow, she didn't think so. Her breath caught as a horrible thought sprang to life. '_Is it a robber?'_

She shuddered and pulled her blanket back up to cover her whole head. Logically, she knew she could take care of any robber that showed up, but that didn't make the thought of someone creeping around in her dorm room while she slept any less scary.

That was when the second pulse came.

Haru jerked in her bed, her eyes going wide. '_What was THAT_?!' she thought frantically as she tried to calm her racing heart. Whatever it had been, it had set her youkai side wild. The other Haru was racing around in her head; she was almost frantic in her attempts to get outside, and Haru herself suddenly found the dorm room to be far too small and claustrophobic. With all thoughts of robbers thrown aside, she slipped out of the bunk bed and went to the window. Opening it was the work of seconds, and soon she found herself up on the desk, poking her head out through the open window. Hardly even thinking about what she was doing, Haru glanced back at Kagami, still asleep in her bed, then leaped out into the night air.

Another pulse came as Haru hit the ground running, unmindful of the fact that she was still wearing the shorts and oversized T-shirt she used as pajamas and hadn't put on any shoes. Another pulse came, and this time she got a clear sense that it was coming from somewhere deep in the forest. She took off running and had made it halfway to the forest before another figure came barreling into her from the side. A moment of animal instinct took over and she yanked the other figure off its feet and threw it to the ground, ready to tear her attacker's throat out.

"Haru...!" the figure squeaked out in a girlish voice.

Haru froze, her hands hovering just above the mysterious girl's throat, fingers twitching.

"H...Haru...?"

Haru let out a shuddering breath and climbed off the other girl. '_What did I almost do...?'_ she wondered, sickened at the sudden rush of images as the possibilities raced through her mind. She shuddered again, wrapping her arms around herself as the girl stood up and looked at her nervously.

"Haru...? Are you alright? W...why were you so scary? Did you go feral...?" the girl asked.

Haru closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself, and when she opened her eyes again she was significantly more relaxed. And, now that she looked at the strange girl, she realized she had seen her before. "You're...Ryoko, right? From the Youkai Festival?" She had met the girl while waiting in line for the power testing ritual Youko had dragged her to; Ryoko had proved to be quite helpful in answering her questions and filling out the required paperwork for the ritual.

The girl smiled brightly at her, her previous concern seemingly forgotten. "Yep! I'm Yagi Ryoko! Are you trying to find that power?" she asked.

Haru furrowed her eyebrows. "Power...?" Another pulse came from the forest ahead and both girls whipped their heads to face it.

"That one!" Ryoko said, her cat ears twitching as her tail lashed back and forth.

"Y-yeah..." Haru said. She felt her ears and tail trying to pop out, but blocked them with a supreme effort.

"Come on, I wanna see what it is!" Ryoko said happily as she took Haru's hand. "Let's go!"

* * *

><p>Haru's ears and tail <em>did<em> pop out a moment later as they neared the woods. The sheer _power_ in the air made her eyes go wide as she looked around at the trees. What was going on...?

"This is...it's really neat," Ryoko said, smiling as she breathed deeply of the nighttime air. Her ears were standing at attention and her tail had stopped thrashing and instead stood up with a little curl on the end. When she looked back at Haru, she could see Ryoko's eyes were completely dilated.

Another pulse shot through the night, and Ryoko was off like a shot. Haru followed as closely as she could, but she soon lost sight of the cat girl. Soon, however, her sensitive ears detected something crashing through the brush a hundred yards or so off to the right. She didn't have much time to wonder what it might be, however, as she burst out into a large clearing in the woods, in the center of which stood an imposing figure. Haru skidded to a stop to keep from running into Ryoko, who stood stock still in front of her, her tail fluffed up and twitching nervously.

"...Ryoko?" Haru whispered.

"Y-yeah?" Ryoko whispered back, her nervousness coming through in her voice.

"Who's that?" Haru asked, her eyes glued to the big man standing in the center of the clearing. Another pulse shot through the night air, and Haru jerked. Whatever that pulse was, that man was at the center of it.

Another figure burst out of the woods a short distance away and skidded to a stop with a yelp. Haru looked over at the strange boy gaping at the figure in the middle of the clearing. She noted the familiar looking beret he was wearing, but the light wasn't good enough to pick out any distinguishing features.

Someone stepped on a dry twig behind her and Haru let out a yelp of her own and whirled about to face the two figures who had just stepped out from between the trees.

"Well look at this; I didn't think I'd meet _you _again any time soon," The larger of the two said. Haru felt a shiver run down her at the man's voice; she had been in a duel against him not too long ago, when Youko brought her to the Youkai Festival.

"You know her?" the other figure asked, an unfamiliar female voice. Haru strained her vision to get a glimpse of the woman, but she couldn't make out much beyond the woman's thin, wiry body. Something about her brought the image of Sakurazaki Setsuna to her mind, though she didn't know why.

"You could say that; she's the one Youko took under her wing," Rex Crimson, the first figure, said as he stepped out into the moonlight.

"Oh," the woman said as she followed. Haru found herself staring. The woman's appearance was striking; her jet black hair and dark eyes stood in startling contrast to her pale skin, while her movements were tight, constrained, as if she could explode into a flurry of violent motion without the slightest warning. Haru shuffled nervously; the woman was staring at her ears. "The one who kicked your butt?"

Rex smirked. "That's the one. Nothing to be ashamed of either; I went all out, but I was too slow," he said as he moved to stand facing her, looking down at her and meeting her gaze. Haru looked back, her eyes wide and her ears lying flat on her head. Ryoko was hiding behind her, whimpering, the figure in the center of the clearing temporarily forgotten.

Then Rex grinned at her, Haru blinked in confusion, and he laughed and slapped her on the back, making her stagger. "It's good to see you again, Haru. Oh, and don't let my friend here scare you; she won't bite. Or peck," he said, motioning for the strange woman to step forward. "Endo Haru, meet Thorne, of the Crow Tribe."

Haru looked from Rex to Thorne and back, her mouth trying to form words and failing until Thorne smiled crookedly at her.

"Nice to meet you," the Crow woman said, giving her a nod of acknowledgment.

"Ah, uh, n-nice to meet you too..." Haru said hesitantly, nodding back. She realized Ryoko was peeking out from behind her, and moved aside. "Um, this is my friend Yagi Ryoko," she said. "Ryoko, this is Rex Crimson of the Red Fox Tribe and Thorne of the Crow Tribe.

"Ah! Hello," Ryoko said, bowing politely. Haru noticed Ryoko kept looking at the Crow woman, who shifted uncomfortably.

"Isn't she the one...?" Thorne said, eyeing the cat girl suspiciously.

"She's under Konoe protection, and it's just Masashi being petty anyway; it doesn't matter," Rex said.

Thorne gave the cat girl a good long mistrustful look and finally nodded at her. "Nice to—gah!" she let out a startled squawk as Ryoko pounced on her.

"Um...shouldn't you stop them...?" a boy said nervously from nearby. Haru and Rex turned to see a boy about Haru's age wearing, absurdly, a beret. Haru noted nervously that he, like the Crow woman earlier, was staring at her ears. Then his gaze moved to her fluffy tail and her face went red in embarrassment.

"Nah, it's just her instincts," Rex said as he turned back to look at the other two. Ryoko now had Thorne in a whole-body hug and was rubbing her cheek against the Crow woman's hair while she squirmed indignantly.

"And you would be...?" Rex asked as he turned back to the boy. Haru gave Ryoko one last nervous look—she wouldn't try to bite the Crow woman, would she?—and turned her attention back to the boy. Really, he wasn't anything impressive; he was just a few inches taller than her, maybe a little handsome...nothing next to Negi-sensei, however. But at least he had stopped staring at her...

"Er...I'm Nevon. Nevon Bayle..." the boy said. "Gold Fox Tribe..."

"Well then Bayle, I'm Rex Crimson of the Red Fox Tribe, this is Endo Haru, the one getting molested over there is Thorne of the Crow Tribe, and the one doing the molesting is Yagi Ryoko, of the Cat Tribe."

"I see you all have introduced yourselves." The almost absurdly deep voice startled the group to silence as they whirled to look at the speaker, the big man who had been standing at the center of the clearing a moment ago. He was very large, but Haru thought it looked more like muscle than fat; with the man's height and all that muscle, she mused that he was probably far above three hundred pounds. A quick glance was sufficient for Haru to see that Ryoko had disentangled herself from Thorne, and the two stood nervously, seeming ready to bolt at the slightest sign of danger as they stared at the big man.

"There is no need for that," the big man said.

"You're the Steward!" Haru suddenly shouted, pointing at the big man. Rex heaved a sigh and pushed her hand down.

"It's rude to point," he said.

Rydan Draos, Steward of the Youkai in the Absence of the King, smiled slightly. Haru got the feeling he wasn't much of a smiling type of guy.

"Are...are you the one that did that...that thing to make us come here?" Nevon asked, clearly nervous at speaking directly to the Steward, who had attained an almost mythical reputation among the youkai. The stories about his adventures and the famous events he had participated in were so numerous and absurd that many thought they must have a total fiction created for the sake of presenting a certain kind of image, but here, standing before him and feeling the power he put out up close, Haru found she could believe even the few stories she had heard from Youko about the man.

"I am," he replied.

"Why?" Rex asked. Haru decided to let the big Red Fox youkai speak for them. She didn't feel up to the task of facing the Steward. At all.

In response, Steward grinned rather unpleasantly. "The Blessing of Steel," he said, looking at Thorne. The Blessing of the Sea," he said, looking at Nevon. The Blessing of the Forest," he said, looking at Ryoko. "The Blessing of the Flame," he said, looking at Rex. Finally, he turned to Haru. "And finally the Blessing of the World."

He let them soak that in for a moment. "Yes, I have called you together here for a very good reason. You five," he said, fixing each one with a good long look before continuing, "are the five heroes upon whom our future as youkai depends. From time to time a youkai with one of the blessings may be born, but rarely is there more than one at a time. And with all of the blessings handed out in such a short time...you five are the prophesied heroes of all youkai."

Haru just looked at the Steward blankly for a moment. Heroes? She wasn't a hero, she was just a girl who liked to ride bicycles! She looked over at Ryoko and Thorne, who were looking at each other wide-eyed, and realized for the first time how young Thorne must be; the Crow woman had lost her aura of danger, and now that she was no doubt just as confused as Haru herself was, she didn't look to be much older, maybe a few years at most. A quick look at the boys showed Nevon to be just as lost as she was; only Rex maintained his composure, though he looked troubled.

"I'm no hero," Rex said.

The Steward just _looked_ at him, but the Red Fox youkai met his gaze and held it for a solid minute until the Steward grinned. "You may not be a hero yet, but you _will _be; _that_ proves you have the strength of mind," he said, referring to their impromptu staring match. "You have a great deal of experience." He turned to Thorne. "You have much skill for one so young." He turned to Ryoko. "You have the tenacity to survive anything." He turned to Nevon. "You have the innocence of a pure heart, but you are not as naïve as you seem; do not let yourself be led astray." Finally, he turned to Haru. "And you, you have the power to change the world, if you so choose. You five _are_ the prophesied heroes; of that I have no doubt. However, the prophecies also speak of the trials you must go through, trials only you can know. The five of you have already taken your first steps on the path to your destiny; there is no turning back."

Haru looked at the others to see if any of them had any idea what was going on, but all she got back were blank looks, though Rex was making a truly terrifying scowl as he locked eyes with the Steward.

"Is this some game made up by the council?" he asked, his voice deadly quiet.

"No," Rydan Draos replied, his voice deathly serious. "This is no political move, this is no power play. This is about your destiny, and what you must accomplish. Dark times are coming, sooner than you may expect. The time when you can laze about is past," he said, sweeping his stare over the five of them. "This is the true purpose of the office of Steward; since the prophecies were first recorded, the strongest and most trustworthy of us have been chosen to act as the Steward. For forty thousand years we have carried this burden, and the signs are unmistakable. Now is the time. The final confrontation is fast approaching, and many will die. You five are the only chance the youkai have of surviving in any meaningful way. If you fail, we may live on...for a time. But make no mistake, if you fail, it will be over"

Haru's mind raced as she tried to take in everything that was said and what it meant to her as a person, but it was a little overwhelming. She was some prophesied hero? Yeah right! The only time she'd ever done anything noteworthy was when she had overpower Rex in that duel the day Youko took her to the Youkai Festival. What other accomplishments did she have? Causing the Bicycle Club to disband? '_Some hero I am,'_ she thought bitterly.

"What should we do?"

Haru looked up sharply at that voice, but Ryoko ignored her and continued looking up curiously at the Steward.

He turned his attention on the little cat girl and spoke, not unkindly. "Work to increase your strengths and lessen your weaknesses; the prophecies are vague as to the trials each of you will face, but make no mistake: there _will_ be trials. Persevere and work to overcome whatever may come. I see the makings of a hero in each one of you, whether you see it or not. Persevere, stay true, and become strong. That is your only chance."

"...is this like some sort of...superhero team? Like in those comic books the guys back home read?" Nevon asked. Haru couldn't help but see that the boy was incredibly nervous; an effect of speaking to what amounted to the leader of the youkai, she had no doubt.

The Steward's crooked grin widened. "You could say that," he allowed. "But if one of you falls, there will be no miraculous recovery. If you die, it is over, and the future of the youkai will be in greater danger. But so long as at least one of you survives, we have a chance. Train, become strong, and that chance grows. That is all." He turned his back on them and started to walk away.

Haru finally found the nerve to speak up. "W-wait! Wait a minute!" she said, running after him. He paused and half-turned toward her.

"Yes?"

"I'm...I'm not a hero," Haru said frantically. "I think you have the wrong person. There must have been some mistake..." She trailed off when she saw the kind look on the Steward's face.

"No...you are not a hero. Not as you are now, Endo Haru. But rest assured, the bearer of the Blessing of the World is spoken of in the prophecies as The Strongest. Be true to yourself, do not be afraid, and don't fall to doubt and misery. You may believe me when I say this: your power is terrifying. When I recall what you managed during your short visit to our festival, I feel as if things I have come to doubt in my long, long life might be true. No, you may not be a hero, but you have already saved me. The future may be hard, but you have the power to overcome any obstacle put before you. Good luck," he said, clapping her on the shoulder. Then he turned and leaped into the air. A pair of dragonlike wings sprouted from his back, and he flew off over the trees and was soon lost to sight.

Haru watched him go and then turned back to look at the others. She nervously swallowed the lump in her throat and trudges back to them.

"So that's how it is!" Ryoko said happily.

Haru stared blankly. "What? What's going on?"

Rex smirked at her, looking rather amused even though he obviously didn't want to be. "Ryoko here has decided to assign us colors, based on some television show she likes."

"What?"

"That's right!" Ryoko said, smiling brightly. "I'm pink, and my buddy here is black!" she said, grabbing the bemused Crow woman beside her in a hug.

"I'm blue," Nevon offered shyly.

"And apparently I'm green," Rex said.

Haru blinked at them. "But..."

Ryoko beamed at her. "You're red, Haru-chan! That makes you the leader!"

Haru opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out so she closed it and tried again; still nothing. What had she gotten herself into?!

* * *

><p><em><strong>Character profiles!<strong>_

**Endo Haru** - Student Number 17

Age - 14

Apparent Age - 16

Race - Human/Wolf Youkai/Fox Youkai

Skills - Bicycling

Titles - Youkai Red

Tribe - Unafiliated

Youkai Skills - Transformation to Animal Form

Blessing - The Blessing of the World (a blessing relating to a prophesied hero of the Youkai race)

Notes - From an awkward, friendless loser to prophesied hero of the Youkai race in three months...not bad Haru; not bad at all.

* * *

><p><strong>Nevon Bayle<strong>

Age - 28

Apparent Age - 16

Race - Youkai

Titles - Youkai Blue

Tribe - Gold Fox Tribe

Blessing - The Blessing of the Sea (a blessing relating to a prophesied hero of the Youkai race)

Notes - This is the guy who developed a crush on Kondo Kai, an oni, which youkai in general and the Gold Fox Tribe in particular are supposed to hate. He showed up several times during the festival and again at the youkai festival.

* * *

><p><strong>Rex Crimson<strong>

Age - 473

Apparent Age - 30

Race - Youkai

Skills - Advanced weapon usage

Titles - Youkai Green

Tribe - Red Fox Tribe

Youkai Skills - Transformation to animal form

Blessing - The Blessing of the Flame (a blessing relating to a prophesied hero of the Youkai race)

Notes - Rex knew Miyoshi Youko from a long time ago, before her imprisonment; they used to be great friends. The only reason he's working as Masashi's head bodyguard is because he knows where Masashi goes, he has a good chance of getting into a fight, which for him is one of the most enjoyable things in life. He participated in the tournament and was featured throughout the Youkai Festival.

* * *

><p><strong>Thorne<strong>

Age - 41

Apparent Age - 18

Race - Youkai

Skills - Advanced sword skills

Titles - Youkai Black

Tribe - Crow Tribe

Youkai Skills - Flight

Blessing - The Blessing of Steel (a blessing relating to a prophesied hero of the Youkai race)

Notes - Thorne is the heretofore unnamed Crow Tribe bodyguard of Masashi during the Youkai Festival. Judging by her reaction to seeing Setsuna's white wings when Setsuna and Konoka came to interrupt the brawl between Masashi's followers and the Blight Brothers during the Youkai Festival, she seems to have a grudge against her.

* * *

><p><strong>Yagi Ryoko<strong>

Age - 33

Apparent Age - 13

Race - Youkai

Skills - Knot tying

Titles - Youkai Pink

Tribe - Cat Tribe

Youkai Skills - Transformation to animal form

Blessing - The Blessing of the Forest (a blessing relating to a prophesied hero of the Youkai race)

Notes - Ryoko has been featured off and on all through Still Waters 3, ever since the Kyoto Trip way back in Book 1. Most recently, she was saved from the Blight brothers by Rosemary and Fujiko during the festival, and made an appearance or two during the Youkai Festival, where she became friends with Endo Haru.

* * *

><p><strong>Rydan Draos<strong>

Age - ?

Apparent Age - 60

Race - Youkai

Skills - ?

Titles - The Steward of the Youkai in the Absence of the King

Tribe - Dragon Tribe

Youkai Skills - ?

Blessing - ?

Notes - This is an important youkai. He is incredibly ancient even for a youkai, and all but rules the youkai race at the moment since they don't have a king yet. He is also responsible for many other things, including making sure the prophesied heroes are aware of their importance.


	6. Coming Home

Title: Coming Home

Characters: Possum Cade and Akashi Yuuna

Genre: Angst, friendship

Rated: G

Timeframe: Just after the Youkai Festival

Spoilers: It helps if you know what happened to Possum during the festival and the weeks leading up to it. This side story takes place during Chapter 15: Gone, before the incident with Ayumi in the baths.

* * *

><p><em>Thursday, July 2nd, 2009, Early Morning Before School<br>_

* * *

><p>"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Student Number 15, Possum Cade, said as she stood next to Akashi Yuuna in front of the dorm building. "I mean, what about...'you know what'?" she asked.<p>

Yuuna cocked an eyebrow as she looked over at the girl. Despite the age difference, they were about the same height. "'You know what'?" Yuuna repeated. "You sound like a girl talking about her first dirty book. Look, vampirism isn't some horrible disease or anything." Yuuna paused a moment. "Okay, well, so I guess it is, but it's not like you'll be sucking your friends' blood or anything, right? You _aren't_ planning on doing something stupid like that, are you?" she asked, giving Possum a penetrating stare.

"No! I would never!" Possum said frantically, waving her hands in front of her. The very _thought_ of such a thing horrified her and made her want to vomit. The things that the vampire expert the headmaster had brought in from England had said made her feel a little bit better about the situation, but still...she was scared. Terrified would probably be a better word, in her estimation. The bottom line was this: she didn't know what she might do as a newly created vampire, no matter what _anyone _said. She just...didn't want to hurt anyone.

"Well then it's not a problem, right? I even convinced them to let me work as the dorm mother for a while, since the last one stormed out. What did you guys do to her, anyway?" Yuuna asked, grinning.

"That was all Rosemary and Youko!" Possum said defensively. "I didn't have anything to do with it!"

Yuuna just looked at her.

"Okay," Possum said reluctantly. "So I put that laxative in her coffee, but she deserved it! She was picking on Taro, just because she didn't like her!"

Yuuna nodded. Lots of people didn't like Possum's best friend Urashima Taro, mostly because of the girl's natural independence and the way she didn't trust authority figures. The previous dorm mother had blown into town like a whirlwind, claiming to be some sort of expert on the psychology of teenage girls...Yuuna rolled her eyes. She had a feeling the woman had been assigned as a dorm mother to show her just how wrong she was, and, from all accounts, it had worked. The woman had stormed out after two weeks and hadn't been seen in Mahora since. Yuuna couldn't help but grin at the thought. She had never been able to stomach being around people like that woman. "I believe you. And honestly," Yuuna paused, looking back and forth to make sure nobody was listening. "Nice job," she whispered conspiratorially, grinning. Possum blushed.

They stood side by side for a long moment, looking at the dorm's front door.

"Do you want to wait until everyone leaves for school?" Yuuna asked.

"Y-yeah..." Possum said, shuffling nervously.

"Gotcha," Yuuna said. "C'mon, we can go to my room and kill some time in there," she said, taking Possum's hand.

* * *

><p>"Wow," Possum said, awe in her tone as she looked around the small room Yuuna had been assigned. The various things she had collected during her two years of world travel lay strewn about or poking out of boxes. Possum let her gaze move from the exotic kris knife to an eerily translucent chunk of rock to what had to be the stock of a military-style rifle poking out of a box. "Wow," she said again.<p>

Yuuna stood beside her, chest puffed out, preening at the attention Possum was giving her collection. "Oh, it's not _that _amazing," she said, clearly impressed with herself. "I've just saved a few countries, met a few celebrities...you know, the usual."

Possum's eyes were drawn back to the kris knife, which, judging by the material left behind on it, Yuuna seemed to be using as a butter knife.

A few minutes later, after Yuuna had cleared some room for the two of them to sit down, she faced Possum across the stacked crates that served as a small table. "So," she said. "How do you feel? Thirsty?"

Possum, eying the kris knife again, shook her head before turning her attention back to Yuuna. "No, I had something to drink before you came to pick me up." Yuuna just sat there across from her, grinning in amusement. It took Possum longer that she thought it should to realize Yuuna hadn't been talking about the regular sort of thirst.

"No! Not since...not since the festival," Possum said, looking down at her lap.

"You don't have to hold back, Possum," Yuuna said quietly, turning her head to look out the window. "If you're thirsty, you're thirsty. Don't hold back; that's the worst thing you can do in your situation. If you're thirsty, just tell me; I'll get you fixed right up," she said, looking back at Possum.

Possum looked back down at her lap. "I'm really not thirsty like that, though..."

Yuuna shook her head. "Whatever. Just let me know whenever you do get that way, okay?" She waited for Possum's sheepish nod, and replied with a nod of her own. "Good. Remember! I'm your trainer, right? If you can't tell something like that to me, who can you tell it to? Anyway," she said, "it sounds like the morning rush is over; it's probably safe to go out now."

Yuuna stood up and headed for the door; Possum followed. When they were out in the hallway, Yuuna lead the way upstairs, where she paused in front of the room Possum shared with her classmate Kara Stride. She turned to Possum. "Got your key?"

Possum nodded and stepped forward. She hesitated before the door until Yuuna cleared her throat, and sheepishly unlocked it. The room was much as she remembered it; even though she had been gone for two weeks, it appeared that no one had messed with her things. Even her bookbag was still lying on the dresser, right where she had left it. She felt absurdly thankful to Kara; the other girl had evidently believed in her eventual return enough to leave her stuff alone.

"Come on," Yuuna said, stepping into the room. "Let's get some stuff together and go up to the baths, okay?" she said, grinning.


	7. A Conversation Between Old People

Title: A Conversation Between Old People

Characters: Evangeline A. K. McDowell and Miyoshi Youko

Genre: Angst/Friendship

Rated: G

Timeframe: After the Youkai Festival

Spoilers: None really, unless you somehow missed the truth about Youko, which has been known since the Kyoto arc in Book 1.

* * *

><p>"Hey."<p>

Eva, mildly annoyed, looked up from the book she was reading under her parasol. Her annoyance grew when she saw who had decided to visit her on the rooftop of the middle school. "Shouldn't you be in class?" she asked as she looked back down at her book and tried to remember where she had been on the page when she had been interrupted.

"I could say the same thing to you," student number twenty, Miyoshi Youko, said as she plopped down in the shade of one of the large potted plants that served as meager decorations on the rooftop.

Eva heaved a sigh and snapped her book shut; she'd never find where on the page she had stopped, now.

"Forgot your bookmark," Youko said.

Eva looked down at her book for a moment, then to the bookmark she held in her other hand, and heaved another sigh. Forget where on the page, she'd never find where in the _book_ she had been on... "Why did you even come up here?" she demanded.

Youko turned to look toward the world tree; only its top was visible from where she sat due to the height of other nearby buildings. "How do you deal with it?" she asked after a moment.

Eva frowned. "What are you going on about now?" She eyed Youko speculatively. She had a pretty good idea of what the girl was going on about, actually; Youko confirmed her suspicions a moment later.

Youko shrugged and looked away, her usual grin plastered across her face like a mask. "I was only about a hundred and eighty when they locked me up, but still...anyone can tell the world's changed since then. How do you deal with it?"

"Oh," Eva said; she had also heard the question Youko hadn't asked. _How do you deal with the deaths of your loved ones? _Eva looked off toward the world tree herself as her face took on its own cold and distant expression, just as much a mask as Youko's grin. The two of them sat in silence for a long ten count before Eva spoke. "History. It helps if you know what happened between 'then' and 'now'."

"'Then' and 'now'..." Youko said in a musing manner. "It's been three hundred years since I was locked up, but..." She sighed and shook her head. When she started to speak again, her gaze was as far away as Eva's had been. "So many friends, even family..." She paused. "I...I had a kid back then, you know?" she said, glancing at Eva and then quickly away. "I don't even know what happened to him... He was only a year old when I was locked up."

"That'd be Genjirou," Eva said idly. She pretended not to notice when Youko stiffened up and turned all her attention toward her. "He took after his father."

"Ah," Youko said. She stood up and moved over to the safety wall that ringed the roof and leaned on it.

That 'Ah' said it all, Eva thought. When a half youkai 'took after' a human parent, it meant they were likely to die before they even reached a hundred years of age...quite short lived for a youkai. Youko's son had died almost two hundred years ago; it had taken Chachamaru some time to dig up the information, but Eva recalled the report in detail, if only because Youko was almost as long lived as she herself was.

"He helped keep the region from collapsing into turmoil, and ensured the Shinmeiryu would continue to survive, among other things," Eva said, pretending not to notice the effect her words were having on the Silver Fox Youkai leaning against the safety wall. Eva stood up and moved over to join her in leaning against the wall a comfortable distance away, parasol in hand to block the early summer sun. "From what I understand, he lived a good life." '_And had a lot of fun,'_ she mentally added. Having twenty three children by seven different women said quite a bit about a man, after all. From what she had read, Miyoshi Genjirou had been a lot like Nagi, in a lot of ways, except that Genjirou had never found a woman strong enough to keep him tied down the way Nagi had. He had been a master of not only the sword, but of eastern magic and ki usage as well, though he had ultimately died on the battlefield at the age of a hundred and three, utterly outnumbered and yet somehow managing to hold out even at his great age until his allies managed to escape with the innocents he was trying to protect. The _only_ reason his name was all but lost to history was the fact that, though he had many friends, he had made a great many enemies in his day as well, and more than a few of them had been in significant positions of power.

"Did you ever..." Youko said, then trailed off.

"Miss anyone?" Eva supplied, cocking an eyebrow as she looked at the other girl. "Hell no," she lied. "Everyone I cared about died the day I became a vampire, and I killed anyone who ever gave me trouble. Outliving everybody around you is something you have to get used to if you want to live around humans," Eva said, waving her hand dismissively. "Even that Endo Haru you spend so much time with will die before you do. If you want my advice, you should give up on her and that Suzuki Keiko and go on with your own life. Not that anyone ever listens to me," Eva said, rolling her eyes. "I must have handed out that bit of advice a thousand times."

"Haru-chan'll be remembered for all time, though," Youko said, breaking into a grin, a _real_ grin this time. "She's really gonna shake things up."

"'All time' is a long time," Eva said, looking back out at the world tree. Then, changing tack, she went back to address Youko's original question. "You seem to be adjusting just fine. I caught Chachamaru with a Do-It-Yourself can of instant mana and a 'thumb drive' full of pictures of The Boy the other day. She said you gave it to her," Eva said, sending a level glare at Youko.

Youko grinned a prankster's grin. "What, me? No way, Chachamaru must've been mistaken," she said, then reached down into her schoolbag and pulled out a manila envelope. "Ten thousand yen for the ones a bit too extreme for Chachamaru's tastes."

Eva forced her eyes to stop following the manila envelope and looked back out over the campus, her mind fully in the present. "Eight."

"Done. Nice doing business with you," Youko said, and grinned.


	8. Waking Up (1)

Title: Waking Up (1)

Characters: Kobayashi Ayumi and Watanabe Miyako

Genre: General

Rated: G

Timeframe: A week and a half after the Youkai Festival

Spoilers: Won't make sense unless you've read up to Chapter 17 and Chapter 18: Darkness: Kara, of Still Waters 3 Book 2. I suggest reading 17 and 18 at least, then reading this one directly after. Also, Language Warning.

* * *

><p><em>Saturday, July 11th, Morning<em>

* * *

><p>Ayumi sat up in bed, staring blankly at the wall across the room.<p>

"...huh?"

She had the feeling she should be feeling pretty bad, all depressed and miserable, but... She stretched out her arms and legs, letting out a little sound as she approached the very edge of flexibility, and finally relaxed and flopped over comfortably on her bunk, arms and legs flung out in a haphazard fashion. She made a little quizzical noise as she laid there, wondering why she felt so light and relaxed. She couldn't recall the last time she had felt so good. It didn't really make sense; after all the stress she had been under... That thing with her favorite band asking Kara to play with them instead of her, the thing where Possum fell down the stairs after that, the thing with Kohana's gang after _that_, and then the thing with Caro that resulted in Kara kicking her out of the band after **_that_.**

She had let the stress get to her and acted like a total bitch. She would have to apologize of course; as much as she didn't want to, now that she was thinking clearly she could clearly see how crazy she had been acting at the time...apologizing was the least she could do. Why had she done those terrible things...? Ayumi _hated_ apologizing; it always made her feel ashamed of herself. She heaved a sigh as she imagined calling Kara out somewhere where other people didn't go often so they could speak in privacy; it was embarrassing in a lot of ways. After that, she'd have to do the same with Possum and then Caro too, probably even Shizuko. Just the _thought_ of all that apologizing had her face going red in humiliation. She knew it was necessary, but she _really_ wasn't looking forward to it. Finding the right timing would hard to do, too, since she didn't want anyone else there during any of the apologies...she'd be lucky if she worked up the nerve to do it before summer break! Then after that there would be all the awkwardness of trying to get back into the band, the way Kai and Miyako would keep looking at her when they didn't think she saw them, and whatever would happen with Kara... The whole mess was tiring, that was what it was.

A brief memory of really quite pretty eyes flashed to life in her mind and was gone before she could recall anything more than a feeling of warmth and comfort. Not really knowing why, Ayumi trailed a finger across her lips, wondering why she was doing what she was doing.

"I should probably go to the school today, see if any of the teachers are there..." she muttered, and frowned as she recalled just how many days she had skipped. "I probably have a _ton _of make up work. Good thing it's an escalator school..."

"Ayumi...?"

Ayumi immediately stiffened, fully expecting to be flooded with her usual low-grade rage at Miyako's sleepy interruption of her thoughts, but...the minor twinge of annoyance she got instead was startling in how unimportant it felt. She realized belatedly that she should probably respond. "Yeah?"

Miyako leaned down to look at Ayumi from the top bunk, and smiled brightly at her, her hair hanging down. "Are you feeling well enough to go out today?" she asked.

Ayumi couldn't help but smirk at Miyako's bed head while again marveling at how light and relaxed she herself felt. It was _weird_. She felt like a whole year of stress had just...vanished, worked itself out or maybe been vented somehow. "I guess," Ayumi said, trying not to show how good she felt as she pushed herself upright and climbed out of bed. A quick glance at their other roommate Rosemary showed the American girl had, during the course of the night, ripped the blankets off her bed in her sleep and then fallen half out of bed, leaving only one leg propped up on the mattress while the rest of her lay on the floor with her arms flung out. Ayumi knew from past experience that Rosemary would sleep like that until waking up suddenly ten minutes before time to leave for school, and be cleaned up, wide awake, and ready to go before either Ayumi or Miyako managed in spite of waking up much earlier. Ayumi was normally annoyed at that, but today she just didn't feel like holding a grudge for something so silly. Instead, she headed for the bathroom, where she paused for a moment, a dim memory of something pleasant happening in similar surroundings flitting through her mind along with the brief urge to have a dozen or so children with someone before it vanished, leaving her curiously discontented.

She shrugged. It probably wasn't important anyway.


	9. Waking Up (2)

Title: Waking Up (2)

Characters: Kagurazaka Asuna, Negi Springfield

Genre: General, Angst

Rated: G

Timeframe: Monday, July 13th, 2009, between Chapter 21: Darkness: Rikki, and Chapter 22: The New Batch

Spoilers: This one's meant to be read alongside Chapter 22; you won't understand what happened to Negi unless you've read the previous arc.

* * *

><p>"Ugh..."<p>

He opened his eyes, and immediately closed them again; the blindingly bright light only worsened his already throbbing headache.

"Negi?"

"...Asuna-san?" he said, his voice oddly raspy.

"It's me, Negi," she replied. He felt her take his hand, and smiled a little as he again tried opening his eyes, if a little more slowly this time. The first thing he saw was Asuna's mismatched eyes looking down at him as she grinned that familiar grin of hers she used whenever she was trying to hide her worry. She moved back as Negi tried to sit up; he found the task surprisingly difficult until she helped pull him upright.

"What happened?" he asked as he looked around the small white room he found himself in. He recognized it as one of the secret hospital rooms located deep underneath the middle school administration building. He looked down at his body, but despite the IV tube attached to his arm, he didn't see any obvious injuries. Asuna grinned again, and he finally noticed just how tired she looked.

"Do you want the long version or the short version?" Asuna asked.

Negi thought it over for a moment until his stomach growled. "Give me the short version now; you can give me more details after I eat something."

"Sure," Asuna said, then paused as if to collect her thoughts. "Okay," she started, holding up a certain dead pactio card. "See this?" she asked.

Negi raised an eyebrow at the question, but nodded.

"From what we can tell, it had a ghost attached to it. She attached herself to _you_ when you picked this up-"

"But that was years ago!" Negi blurted. It must have been two, no...three years ago that he had found that card on the beach up north. To think there had been a ghost attached to it...

Asuna shrugged off his interruption and continued the story. "Turns out she's some hugely powerful mage, but needs a human body to use her magic. And guess who ended up volunteering?" she asked, grinning at him again.

Negi rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh. "How bad was it?" It was extremely dangerous for a ghost to possess a living body, especially if they tried to do something like channel magic power with it.

Asuna's grin slipped. "I'm not gonna lie to you...it was pretty bad. Kazumi and Reiko got knocked out, Sayo-chan got eaten, and you puked up something like a quarter of the blood in your body," she said.

Negi's expression must have shown his thoughts clearly, because Asuna quickly expanded upon her previous statement.

"Everybody's okay of course; Sayo didn't even seem to notice, and Kazumi was up and walking around again half an hour later. It took a while longer for Reiko, but she's awake now too. Don't worry Negi, you did a good job."

Negi clammed up and looked away. Now that he knew that a ghost had been attached to him for so long, he realized that there was a gaping hole in his emotions that he had never noticed before, something the ghost had left behind. While he didn't feel the deep disgust at himself and his failings that he had gotten used to over the years, the depths of his disappointment in himself were still vast and doing their best to fill that emptiness the ghost had left behind in his soul. Whatever Asuna said, he _was _responsible for this incident; _he_ had picked up that card and brought that ghost to Mahora. Whatever had happened had been a direct result of his own actions, and he hadn't even been able to do anything to stop it. Instead...instead, his friends and students had been forced to throw themselves into the line of fire to clean up _his _mistake, and from what Asuna said, Kazumi and Sayo and Reiko had been hurt because of it. It was...disappointing. He wanted to punish himself somehow, but anything he tried would only make Asuna and Nodoka and the others worry; there was nothing he could do, and that somehow made him feel even worse. So, in the end, he did what he did best...he put on a pleasant face and pretended nothing was wrong.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Asuna-san, but I am very hungry..." he said, smiling at her and hating himself for purposely distracting her like that.

"Ah...of course, I'll be right back," she said as she stood up and smiled back at him. So great was his self loathing that he barely even noticed until she had left the room, and that only made him feel worse.

Negi sat there in silence on the hospital bed for a long, long moment, trying to figure out what he should do. His options weren't good; almost anything he tried-extra training, self punishment, staying away from the others to keep them safe—would only make the others worry, and he had caused enough of_ that_ over the years already. The only thing he could think of, the _only _thing, was deception. Pretending everything was all right. Pretending he didn't hate the sight of his face in the mirror every morning. Pretending he wasn't the reason his friends all suffered. Yes...it was the only thing that might work. And, while the idea itself was _extremely_ distasteful, in this case he felt that it was necessary. He would lie to everyone so they wouldn't worry about him, he would lie to his acquaintances, his coworkers, his friends, anyone that might be concerned about him. He would lie to them all for their own good, pretend that nothing was wrong, pretend he didn't feel like he was shriveling up inside...

"Hey Negi, I'm back!" Asuna said as she opened the door and stepped through, carrying a tray with some unappetizing food on it. "They haven't started making lunch yet, so you get the leftovers from breakfast."

"Ah, thank you Asuna-san!" Negi said, pasting on his best smile as he scooted back on the bed to make room for the tray. Asuna gave him an odd look, but he continued smiling as he looked down at the colorless eggs, burnt toast, and the small carton of milk. '_Just keep lying, that's all I'm good for anyway._' "This looks delicious!" he said as he picked up the plastic fork lying on the tray and started to eat.

'_Yes, that's it, I just have to keep lying; I have to keep everyone else from worrying and getting into trouble because of my failings. Just keep lying...'_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Notes<strong>: And this is what happens when you take someone like Negi and_ don't _give him the character development he got in Mundus Magicus in the manga.__ Keep in mind, in the Still Waters universe, the magic world trip with Class 3A never happened due to the events of Still Waters 1; events in Still Waters 2 and Still Waters 3, however, are forcing things in that direction, albeit six years later. Still, it should be exciting._


	10. That's a Little Awkward (1)

Title: That's A Little Awkward, Part 1

Characters: Kagurazaka Asuna, Max Linell, and Jennifer Minindry

Genre: General

Rated: G

Timeline: After the Darkness arc

Spoilers: Pretty big ones for the Darkness arc, so read this after Chapter 21: Darkness: Rikki

* * *

><p>"So what are you going to do about it?" Asuna asked.<p>

Max Linell, former agent of the American Division, frowned. His looks made him the sort of person who, when he frowned, people tended to notice. And run away from.

"You can't just ignore it," Asuna said from where she was seated on a small boulder.

Max grunted as if to say 'See if I don't' and swung his sword again, as he had all morning.

Asuna never got tired of sparring with him. Though her sword skills far outmatched his, he approached things differently than she did and, often enough, surprised her. On this day, however, he hadn't wanted to spar, and instead had taken up his biggest sword and started sword swinging practice first thing in the morning. Asuna glanced over at Jennifer, who was sleeping in the shade of a tree, a contented look on her face.

Max had been swinging his sword for almost eight hours.

Asuna heaved a sigh and flopped backward over the rock to lie on the ground so she could look up at the false sky of Eva's resort. "Damn," she muttered. If only that Rikki woman's ghost hadn't shown up... While she and Max Linell had little in common beyond being fond of the sword, she counted him among her close circle of friends. They had known each other for six years, a good third of her life. In spite of the culture difference, in spite of the age difference, in spite of the gender difference, the two of them just _clicked_, much like she did with Ayaka, or with Setsuna. It was just one of those mysterious things about life, she supposed...the sort of thing that made no logical sense, and yet was so anyway. She heaved another sigh, listening to the sound of her friend grunt each time he swung the heavy sword.

'_At least it isn't as bad as it could be,'_ she thought, recalling Negi's condition. Konoka had done her best to heal the damage that damn Rikki had done to his body, trying to use it as a conduit for shadow elemental magic. Asuna knew the ghost couldn't use her magic without a body, but why did she have to choose Negi?! Asuna's hand bunched up into a fist and tore up a handful of grass. That woman had a ton of explaining to do, in Asuna's opinion. "Why she latched onto Negi and why she didn't find a way to tell Max she hadn't moved on after she died would make a good start," she said aloud.

Negi's situation was bad enough, but at least he would recover and end up as good as new; she knew Max's situation wouldn't be anywhere _near_ so easy.

Rikki Suvari, the girl who had grown up with Max back in California, had been more than a friend; the two of them had been in love for a long, long time; her sudden death during a botched mission after they had joined the American Division had struck Max hard. Asuna didn't know all the details, but she thought she had pieced the situation together well enough for basic understanding through information gleaned over the years from conversations with both Jennifer and Max. She didn't know the whole story, not by a long shot...but then again, neither did Akira, the only woman as close to Max as Jennifer was.

"This won't end well if you don't do something about it," Asuna said loudly enough for her friend to hear.

"I already settled it, back in California," Max growled out as he swung his sword as if at some unseen enemy.

Asuna supposed he was just trying to wear himself out so he wouldn't have to think about how his pleasant life here in Mahora would have to change. She didn't think she could stand seeing Max and Jennifer and Akira and everyone else tiptoeing around the situation for months on end with nothing being resolved. She had read too much manga over the years to find such a situation appealing; that was more to Nodoka or Yue's tastes. Haruna's answer to such a situation was best left unconsidered for the sake of decency.

She heaved another sigh. Why did everything have to become so complicated, especially right before the trip they had been planning for the Magic World? Poor Ako's kidnapping, Negi's health problems—hopefully solved now—and now _this_. She was tired of dealing with problems she couldn't solve by slicing something up. She would even prefer facing down a demon to...to _this_! At least with a demon, she knew what to do! But no, there wasn't anything so simple to deal with here, oh no! Perish the thought!

Asuna rolled her eyes and climbed back up onto the rock. She had already talked to Akira about the problem, and her old friend, while shyly evasive, had agreed that a meeting between the two was necessary. A quick glance back at Jennifer showed the other woman was still asleep under the tree. '_Okay, I've got to at least get the two of them to talk_', she thought as she looked back at Max. '_Preferably without Jennifer around_.' Jennifer was a bit of an enigma; even after six years, Asuna _still_ didn't know the woman well enough to really call her a friend...the only ones who did were Akira, Yuuna, Makie, and Ako, and she knew Nodoka sometimes watched movies with her. Asuna had never quite been able to bring herself to totally trust the other woman; something about her presence made Asuna want to watch her back whenever Jennifer was around.

"Okay, I give up," she said in disgust, throwing her hands in the air as she rolled her eyes. "You win. I won't talk about it anymore. Just...you can't leave it like this. For your own sake, for Jennifer's sake...for Akira's sake. You just can't leave it like this."

Max kept swinging his sword, so Asuna heaved a disgusted sigh and turned to go. She had made it maybe twenty feet when he spoke.

"...alright."

Asuna stopped walking and grinned wide; she couldn't help it. With her back still toward Max, she gave her reply. "I'll call you tonight with a time and a place, so clean yourself up; you stink like sweat," she said, shooting him a devilish grin over her shoulder. '_Heh, I can read you like a book,' _she thought, secretly amused.


	11. That's a Little Awkward (2)

Title: That's A Little Awkward, Part 2

Characters: Max Linell, Rikki Suvari, Asakura Kazumi, Kagurazaka Asuna, Jennifer Minindry, Sasaki Makie, Akashi Yuuna, Okochi Akira

Genre: Angst, Friendship

Rated: G

Timeline: After the Darkness arc, before summer vacation

Spoilers: Pretty big spoilers for the Darkness arc, so be sure to read the whole arc before you read this; also, read 'That's a Little Awkward, Part 1' first, obviously.

* * *

><p>"Okay, so, you said she's here?" Asuna asked, looking at Kazumi.<p>

"Yeah, just like the last two times you asked me," Kazumi said. She glanced out through one of the big windows in Natsumi's Diner and leaned on the table, using her left hand to prop up her head. "It'll be fine; stop worrying."

"I don't know...I just keep thinking of all these things that could go wrong," Asuna said. She glanced over at the only other occupied table, a corner table where Akira sat, staring blankly out into space. '_Poor girl's still in shock,'_ she thought sadly. Poor Akira...she and Max had just _clicked_ the first time they met, and that had been that. For the past six years, the two of them and Jennifer, Max's...whatever she was, had been inseparable. Now that Max finally had a chance to speak with the ghost of his girlfriend who had unexpectedly died on a mission-gone-wrong years ago, Asuna knew Akira must have been afraid that he might abandon her and Jennifer. The poor girl, normally so strong and confident, was a nervous wreck. Asuna didn't think Max would hurt Akira or Jennifer like that, but...her fingers moved to grip the hilt of her sword of their own accord.

"What's she doing?" Asuna asked, turning back to Kazumi.

Kazumi, clearly annoyed at the other redhead's constant questions, glanced over to the side. "She's pacing back and forth, wringing her hands, looking worried...about what you'd expect," she said, cocking an eyebrow as she looked back at Asuna. "It's not like she had any idea he was even in the city until she overheard you talking about it. At least, she didn't say anything to _me_."

Asuna nodded nervously. "And _that _is thanks to you casting that translation spell on her," she said, getting some of her own back. She hadn't thought much about how Rikki, as a ghost, would react to the presence of her former partner and boyfriend. '_Come on, stop worrying! It's just like Kazumi said, this will go well. You don't want to just give up now and have to watch something like a scene ripped out of a harem manga, do you?' _She sighed. Watching Max, Akira, and Jennifer bumble around awkwardly while dancing around the subject of Max's old dead girlfriend who had just returned as a ghost would just be too much. Once she had had that thought, it just wouldn't go away. It was _just_ _like_ something out of a bad harem manga! "Or maybe a cheap TV drama," she said aloud.

Kazumi glanced over at her. "Did you say something?"

Asuna shook her head, and Kazumi's gaze returned to the window. Asuna sat there in the otherwise quiet diner for maybe thirty seconds before her cell phone beeped. She pulled it out and flipped it open. The text message she found waiting for her was short and simple. "Ayaka says he's coming," she said aloud.

The effects of her announcement were immediate. Kazumi's attention snapped back to her, while Akira fell half out of her seat, scrambled up, and ran across the dining area to hide behind the counter. Natsumi, preparing for the afternoon rush, gave her an odd look as she crouched down out of sight, but didn't force her out.

"You! Right here!" Kazumi said in a firm voice, looking at nothing Asuna could see as she pointed at a spot on the floor beside her. Asuna couldn't see the ghost, but judging from Kazumi's appreciative nod, it followed her orders and moved to stand beside her.

As the seconds stretched to first one minute and then five, Asuna began to get annoyed. She had just pulled out her cell phone to demand an update when the bell above the door jingled, signaling a new arrival. Asuna looked up to see her friend Max, dragged along by Yuuna and Makie, one girl on each arm, with Jennifer pushing along from behind.

"Look, I said I was going to go, and I meant it!" he growled out at them. "You don't have to drag me!"

"Yeah right! You were just going to stand on that street corner moping all day if we _didn't_ drag you here!" Yuuna said, grinning widely. "Admit it!"

"Yeah! You're acting like a schoolboy with a crush!" Makie added as she did her best to drag her friend and fellow P.E. teacher into the diner by his left arm.

Asuna immediately noticed Jennifer's unusual silence as well as the fact that she seemed to be working just as hard as the other two to speed him up. Asuna didn't quite understand the relationship the two of them shared, much less how Akira fit into it, but it was obvious to anyone who knew her that Jennifer was just as nervous as Akira, maybe even more. Nevertheless, she kept pushing.

"Look, I said I was going to come along, so _stop dragging me_!" he bellowed, shaking off Yuuna and Makie with ease. "And you...!" he said, whirling to face Jennifer, who lost her balance and crashed into him. His arm went around her to keep her from falling, and she buried her face in his chest. He growled something under his breath. "Jennifer..."

"Oo~h, look at that!" Yuuna said, from where she had safely fallen onto a padded bench in one of the booths next to the door.

"Oh? What's this?!" Makie said in mock horror, holding her hands over her heart as if she had just had it pierced.

"Shut up!" Max bellowed, gently pushing Jennifer away as he glared at Makie and Yuuna. In spite of the anger he showed, he was blushing so completely from neck to hairline that Asuna had to struggle to stifle a laugh. As scary and serious as the big man liked to portray himself, he was a total softie inside, and probably as nervous as Akira and Jennifer and Rikki seemed to be. He was very careful as well; Asuna hadn't missed how he had flung both Yuuna and Makie away, only for them to miraculously fall on heavily padded benches when they could have easily ended up bouncing off of a table or hitting a wall instead. She heaved a sigh and stepped forward. She grabbed his hand before he realized she was close enough, and gave it a little tug to get him moving.

"I'm not a child," he growled under his breath.

Asuna grinned up at him. "Well come on then. It's not _that_ bad, is it?" She looked ahead, toward where Kazumi was standing. "Are you ready?"

Kazumi nodded and looked over to the side at something only she could see. "Ready? Do it just like I told you," she said, holding out her hand. For a long moment nothing happened, but then Kazumi put her head down, shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself.

Asuna watched, curious, as something about Kazumi _changed_. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but the moment the ghost took control was obvious. Everything, from the way she moved to the way she carried herself to the way her gaze darted across the diner was eerily unlike Kazumi. She felt Max grip her hand tightly and looked back at him. "You look like you've seen a ghost," she said, before she could stop herself. Yuuna groaned at the bad joke as she sat on her padded bench.

"Y...you could say that," Max said quietly, his eyes glued on Kazumi.

Kazumi, or rather the ghost operating Kazumi's body, froze upon hearing Max's voice and looked up at him. Asuna noted that her eyes were incredibly wide, as if she had seen a ghost herself. "M...Max..." The voice that came out of Kazumi's mouth was eerily different, forcibly reminding Asuna that, again, this was _not _Kazumi. "You...you can hear me now..."

"...Rikki...?" he replied nervously.

She took a hesitant step forward, then another, and then she broke into a stumbling run toward him. Max caught her and hugged her tight.

"Rikki...Rikki..." he said. "I'm sorry, Rikki. I never meant for..."

"Oh Max...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

Asuna could only watch such a sappy thing for so long before she had to avert her eyes out of embarrassment for both parties involved. Or rather, for all three parties involved, since, while Rikki was in charge, it was Kazumi's body she was using to cling to Max. A quick look at Yuuna showed her to be taking pictures with her cell phone, and a quick look at Makie showed her to be doing the same. Jennifer was just standing near the door, her gaze averted from Max and Rikki as she stared off into space with a closed off expression on her face, while Akira was peeking up over the counter, watching the exchange and no doubt freaking out inside her head. Akira was normally among the most stable members of their old class; it seemed the only thing that could ever make her lose her cool was Max. Asuna looked back at Max and Rikki and was disturbed to see Rikki looking like she was getting ready to go for a kiss.

"Okay! Well now, why don't we all sit down and talk!" Asuna said, slapping each one on the shoulder. They all but leaped apart when they realized what they had been about to do. "So!" she said, steering them to a booth, where she shoved Rikki into one side and forced her over to the wall. "Wait here a minute," she said to Max as she trotted over to the door and grabbed Jennifer.

"Wh-hey! Don't, I mean, I don't want to-to get in their way..."

"_No time!"_Asuna growled at her. "Do you want them to get back together, or do you want them to accept reality?" she demanded as she dragged Jennifer over to the booth and shoved her in opposite Rikki. Rikki quickly looked down at her hands and Jennifer looked down to where the bench butted up against the wall. Asuna quickly dragged Akira's protesting form out from behind the counter and shoved her in next to Jennifer, then pushed Max in beside them, ignoring his protests about a lack of space. '_Okay, what now...?'_ Asuna wondered as she spotted Yuuna and Makie. She motioned them over and they quickly took up positions in the booths on each side, moving so they could watch the whole thing. With nothing else left, Asuna slid in next to Rikki, blocking any possible attempt at escape.

"Well!" Asuna said, looking around at the spectacularly crowded table. "Everybody comfortable? Natsumi!" she called out.

"Coming!" Natsumi replied as she bustled around the counter and laid out two trays full of food. Megumi, the only waitress at the moment, brought three more.

"Great!" Asuna said, full of enthusiasm. "Here! Try some of this spaghetti! Natsumi's got the best cook in town working in the kitchen today!" she said, pointing at the cook in question. The curvy young woman in the chef hat behind the counter smiled and waved at them, then went back to her task. Asuna pushed the plate over in front of Rikki, who hesitantly picked up a fork.

The next five minutes were some of the most awkward Asuna had ever felt. No one wanted to eat at first, but that quickly changed when they got a taste of Satsuki's spaghetti. There was little sound but the clanking of silverware against plates after that. '_I knew it was a good idea to ask Satsuki to help out with this,'_ Asuna thought as she again glanced at the chef. She had initially worried that Satsuki might reject her request since Satsuki's restaurant chain and Natsumi's Diner were technically in competition with each other, but she felt like an idiot when Satsuki agreed as soon as Asuna explained the situation. Of course Satsuki would help! Asuna knew she should have known there wouldn't even be a question; even though she had always been the quiet one, Satsuki cared just as much about her old friends and classmates as the rest of them did.

After the plates were cleared, however, silence again fell like a lead weight over the table. Asuna was ready to pull her hair out when someone unexpected came to the rescue.

"That was really good," Jennifer said after a moment. This brought about a chorus of hesitant agreement.

"Of course!" Asuna said, seizing upon the opportunity. "Satsuki's the best chef in town!" She turned to Rikki. "So how about you? What did you think?" she asked.

Rikki shrank back, but opened her mouth to answer. "It...it was really very good," she said, then looked up at Asuna. "I haven't had anything like that in years."

Asuna just blinked at her. Had Rikki just told a joke? Her grin widened as she decided that yes, she had. It was a pitiful attempt, but a joke was a joke.

* * *

><p>"So then he says 'Well I thought it was a good idea at the time'," Rikki said, badly mimicking the deep voice of one of her and Max's old friends back in America. Everyone cracked up or smiled at the story, even, to Asuna's relief, Jennifer, who had seemed even more nervous than Rikki at first. Asuna grinned at her, and Jennifer returned it with her own awkward grin, her way of showing Asuna she was at least trying. <em>Everyone<em> was trying, and that was a big help. Even Akira, jealous as she could be without even realizing it when it came to Max, seemed to have warmed up to Rikki, if only a little.

Asuna took a sip of her drink, but something about the taste made her eye it suspiciously. A quick glance over at Natsumi showed the other woman quickly hiding a large bottle of some alcoholic drink. Asuna shrugged. She would take any help she could get right now, even spiked drinks. '_Or maybe I should tell her to lay off on Akira's share...'_ Asuna thought as she eyed the long haired woman leaning heavily against Max. It was pretty obvious to anyone who knew her that Akira was, if not drunk already, close to it.

A glance over at Rikki showed her chatting with Yuuna, so Asuna decided the time was right for a push in the right direction. She looked at Max, caught his eyes, and glanced over at Rikki. He looked at her, then quickly away, and picked up his drink. Asuna kicked him in the shin.

"Rikki," Max said. Something in his tone cut through the alcohol-induced gaiety at the table in a heartbeat, and Asuna looked over to see Rikki looking at Max, her eyes big and worried. Again, she was struck by the difference between Kazumi herself and Rikki borrowing Kazumi's body. He gently forced open Akira's grip on his arm and stood up from the table. Asuna, realizing what he wanted to do, stood up to allow Rikki to slide out and face him, and stood watching the two as they faced each other.

"Rikki..."

"Max..."

They paused, looking at each other, each waiting for the other to speak first.

"Rikki," Max finally said. He looked down at Jennifer with her head down and Akira, looking up at him with big watery eyes, and then at Yuuna and Makie, who waited excitedly for what he would say next. He glanced at Asuna, and she nodded at him, smiling. Finally, he looked back at Rikki, who quickly averted her gaze. He reached up and gently took the end of her chin in his hand, and their eyes met. They stood in silence for a long, long moment, just looking at each other.

"I'm sorry, Rikki," he finally said.

Rikki smiled sadly, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "I know, Max."

Asuna just looked at the two of them blankly. '_...what?'_ She almost asked if that was it, but Rikki suddenly spasmed, her knees gave out, and Max moved to catch her before she could fall to the floor. Rikki clung to him weakly and shook her head as if to clear it, and suddenly she was Kazumi again, looking up at Max's ugly mug, and she let out a startled shriek and punched him in the nose. Naturally, he dropped her on the floor.

Asuna sighed. Her anticipation of what would happen had been tremendous, but that resolution... '_"I'm sorry"? "I know"?'_ Asuna thought, frowning. What a letdown...! She heaved another sigh as Akira and Jennifer doted on Max, and turned to Kazumi. "Well? Where did she go?"

Kazumi, clearly embarrassed by what Rikki had done with her body, looked around and frowned. "I don't know, she's not in this building anymore, at least."

"You didn't see where she went at _all_?" Asuna asked, cocking an eyebrow as she moved to help her friend up.

"Well excuse me for living," Kazumi said dryly as she allowed Asuna to pull her to her feet. "I'm trying to recover from the third most terrifying thing I've ever seen, thanks. A little understanding might be nice," she said, cocking an eyebrow of her own.

Asuna rolled her eyes. "Tch. Quit'yer whining. _I _saw him first thing in the morning once, before he had time to clean himself up. You've got nothing to complain about." The corner of her mouth quirked upward in a half-smile.

Kazumi rolled her eyes. "Besides, I've got to run damage control on Makie and Yuuna. You don't think they've uploaded the pictures to the internet yet, do you?"

Asuna's eyes went wide and she quickly looked at the two girls in question, both trying to stifle laughter while they looked at Yuuna's cell phone. "...it's probably too late.

Kazumi heaved a sigh. "Damn."


	12. My Roommate is a What!

Title: My Roommate is a _What_?!

Characters: Mori Kumiko and Kondo Kai

Genre: General

Rated: G

Timeframe: After the Darkness arc, before summer vacation.

Spoilers: Nothing major, just character details you learn by reading the main story.

* * *

><p>Student Number 25, Mori Kumiko, sat at a table under the false sky of Eva's resort, fruity drink given to her by a robot maid in hand, watching some of her classmates trying to cast spells with the help of magic wands that looked more like something out of some magical girl anime than anything one might expect to see in real life.<p>

She sighed.

Kumiko had always known about magic, of course; she had been raised by members of the Church's Burial Agency, after all, and while the member list changed constantly due to death and injury during the extremely dangerous missions they often undertook, the core group that made up the Burial Agency rarely changed. They were like distant family to her, if less pleasant than the usual sort. The woman known as Ciel had raised her since she had been picked up by her as a young child after the death of her family, and Kumiko saw her as a sort of big sister more than anything else. Those years of training the members of the Burial Agency put her through had been brutal, but they had made her strong, in her own way. She had been given a well-rounded skill set that would allow her to survive and even thrive under almost any conditions, and her education hadn't been neglected either. She saw the members of the Burial Agency as favored aunts and uncles, and they seemed to see her as a favored niece, or even a daughter. Despite the tough training, constant missions and occasional deaths among her extended 'family'...

...she had been happy.

And then she had been given this, her first mission. Attend school in the city of Mahora, long rumored to be a haven for vampires, demons, and other things, and blend in. Send back coded messages cleverly disguised as letters home. But most of all, _watch_, and _train_.

She was beginning to get the suspicion that Ciel had sent her to Mahora not to act as a spy, but to keep her safe.

Kumiko heaved another sigh as one of the girls trying to cast a spell had it blow up in her face. Kumiko's roommate, Kondo Kai—who, incidentally, Kumiko had just hours ago found out had been involved in this whole 'secret training by the ultimate vampire to become super-badass mages yay' thing for quite some time—rushed over to the girl, Kumiko's classmate and Kai's fellow bandmember Watanabe Miyako, and began fussing over her.

Kumiko looked away. Kondo Kai...who would have thought she'd end up being a roommate with an oni? What would the others in the Burial Agency say if they found out she was friendly with a girl who was a member of a race that was a direct offshoot of the demons? Ciel at least would probably end up rubbing her forehead while making that expression she always made whenever Kumiko did something dumb. She didn't think Ciel would tell her to execute Kai or anything, especially not since Ciel herself was friends with a soul-eating monster in the form of a human girl and one of the last True Ancestor vampires still in existence, not to mention a boy who could kill _anything_ by cutting the right spot.

Kai trotted over and sat down opposite Kumiko at the table, looking back at the new trainees. "Hey, Kumiko-chan...why aren't you trying to learn magic? Don't you want to know how?"

Kumiko glanced at the other girl's oni horns, which she sometimes left uncovered when in Eva's resort, and quickly away. "Nah...I was already tested, a long time ago. I've got no magical talent whatsoever."

"Oh..." Kai said. The two of them fell into an awkward silence, and Kumiko found herself looking at Kai's oni horns again. They were stubby little things, just barely big enough to poke up through her hair. They were also strangely, absurdly, _cute_. Kumiko kind of wanted to touch them. Kai glanced at her and she looked away.

"Hey..." Kumiko said.

"Yeah?" Kai asked.

Kumiko turned back to Kai again, her eyes straying up to focus on Kai's oni horns again before dropping back down to her face. "Well...sorry. About the other day, I mean."

Kai grinned wide, showing her teeth in a pretty smile. "It's okay; don't worry about it. I know you didn't know I was an oni, and it was the middle of the night and all..."

"Yeah..." Kumiko said. She looked down at the drink she still held. Man, 'the incident' had been awkward. She had gone into it blind, without a clue as to Kondo Kai's true identity, and she _still_ didn't know what to make of the girl. Everything she had learned about oni said they were simple and violent and liked to kidnap humans and drag them off to the mountains to do who knew what, but her roommate Kondo Kai was just...a girl. A pretty one sure, and a drummer in a band, but still...just a girl. She was _normal_. And, judging by what Kumiko had learned of her other classmates since the beginning of the school year, Kai was apparently the norm for otherworldly creatures...or at least otherworldly creatures in Mahora, anyway. Her classmates Miyoshi Youko and Endo Haru were both youkai, the troublemaker Rosemary Dean was a witch, Sophie Rivers was pretty deep into some rare form of shamanism, cute, innocent little Caro Shaw was some kind of _demon_, Urashima Taro was pretty much immortal, and Possum Cade, one of the friendliest girls in the class, not only practiced hoodoo, but had recently become some kind of freaky religious vampire. Or something.

Kumiko sighed again; she could feel a headache coming on.

"You're still moping about that?" Kai asked. "It was just a misunderstanding! I probably should have told you sooner, but..."

"Yeah, it's okay. Sorry," Kumiko said as she laid her head on the table. "This _whole thing_ has me tired," she said with a groan as she again recalled the events that occurred in their dorm room several nights ago.

* * *

><p><em>Several Nights Ago...<em>

* * *

><p>Mori Kumiko sat up in bed, blinking as she looked around the darkened room and moved to let her legs dangle over the edge of her bunk.<p>

"...bathroom..."

She slipped out of the top bunk and landed quietly on the floor, doing her best to not disturb her roommate, Kondo Kai, who slept in the lower bunk. Kumiko glanced at her, eyes bleary with sleep, and walked swiftly across the floor to the bathroom when the other girl didn't stir. As much as she teased Kai about her nightlight, she had to admit it came in handy sometimes.

A moment later, a flush could be heard, and the bathroom door opened to reveal Kumiko, yawning. She moved over to the desk and picked up the water bottle she had left there the night before. The water inside had gone warm, but she drank some anyway before moving back over to the bunk beds.

She paused a moment, peering at a lump of cloth on the floor at the head of Kai's bunk in the faint glow of Kai's nightlight. She reached down and poked it, then picked it up and shook it out to get a better look.

"Oh..."

Kumiko blinked blearily as she held up the cat-eared knit sleeping hat Kai always wore when going to bed. '_Kai sure likes her hats,'_ she thought as her eyes strayed to the small hat rack perched on the edge of the dresser. Who wore sleeping hats anymore, anyway? Kumiko couldn't think of a single other person she knew who did, though she knew her sleep-addled brain probably wasn't of much help at the moment. Her eyes lingered on the small hat rack. It held at least a dozen hats, and though they merged into a single amorphous shape in the semi-darkness of the nighttime dorm room, she had no trouble picturing the various hats there in her mind. Most of them were berets, though there were also a few of those strange little knit hats that Leon, back in the Burial Agency, had always called 'toboggans'.

She was about to toss the hat at Kai's head when something in the dim light caught her attention. Kumiko leaned closer, looking at the pale _thing_ she saw in Kai's hair. She set the sleeping hat on the bed by Kai's pillow and leaned closer still, peering at the shape. '_Is it some kind of hair decoration...?' _she wondered. But that didn't make any sense; why wouldn't Kai have removed it before going to bed? She rubbed her eyes and moved even closer...she had no clue what she was looking at. It was a bizarre little stubby white thing like a cone with the pointy end up. It almost looked like...

"No way..." Kumiko muttered under her breath. She shook her head to clear it. Surely she was dreaming, right? Because there was _no way in hell_ her roommate had devil horns.

She looked at the _thing _again.

No, she decided upon a second look, it wasn't a _devil_ horn; those were longer and sharper looking; the thing on Kai's head was almost _cute_. Nevertheless, it was a _horn_, on _her roommate's head_. She stared at it for a moment.

Not understanding the impulse, she reached out and poked it.

The response was immediate; Kai pulled her head away and let out a soft whimper in her sleep. Kumiko stared for a moment, her finger still outstretched.

It was a horn, all right.

She reached out and poked it a second time, a little harder, and Kai whimpered again, turning her head away, incidentally causing her hair to fall away from the horn, revealing it further. Kumiko looked at it for a moment, her sleep-addled mind refusing to let go of what it was seeing, and before she even realized what she was doing, she had reached out and touched it again. Kai whimpered again, louder, and opened her eyes; an instant later, they locked on Kumiko's. This was followed by a long pause during which Kai, still half asleep and clearly not thinking, stared blankly at Kumiko, reduced to little more than a dark shape looming over her, like some sort of monster in a nightmare.

Kai's startled scream echoed through the dorm building.

Kumiko screamed in response, reeling back after a wild punch from Kai hit her a glancing blow on the cheekbone with more force than she thought possible, and then Kai screamed again, though this time Kumiko thought it was more from pain than fear. A quick glance showed her why: Kai had shot up out of bed during her first scream, but had evidently forgotten she occupied the lower bunk; her head was currently jammed in the bottom of Kumiko's bunk, her horns holding her in place between the wood slats that kept Kumiko's mattress from falling. The image of Kai half-kneeling on her mattress, her arms flailing while the top of her head disappeared into the bottom of Kai's bunk was so bizarrely hilarious that she couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

><p><em>Present Day...<em>

* * *

><p>Kumiko heaved another sigh as she leaned on the table.<p>

"It's not all _that_ bad, is it?" Kai asked, grinning at her.

"It's not just this that's making me tired," Kumiko said, waving her hand to take in Eva's resort and the other girls, still trying and mostly failing to cast the simplest of spells. "It's remembering what happened the other night."

Kai instantly went red in embarrassment. "Yeah...that was pretty rough, wasn't it? I mean, when Yuuna-san came into the room with that baseball bat..."

Kumiko had gone a little red herself, by this point. "Yeah, and your screaming woke up half the dorm, too. I heard some of the first years thought someone was being murdered."

Kai looked away, trying to hide the grin of mixed embarrassment and amusement that she couldn't help but make. When she had regained control of her traitorous face, she turned back to Kumiko. "My screaming? I can't help but remember _you_ doing your fair share, you know~"

"Heh, yeah..." Kumiko said. The two girls each heaved a heavy sigh, then fell into an awkward silence. Kumiko didn't know if Kai was thinking about what Akashi Yuuna, the acting dorm mother after the previous one had stalked out early into her term, had said and done that night, but she knew _she_ was. The dressing down the older woman had given them had been rough, to say the least. Though the way she had resolved the problem of Kai being stuck—pulling her by the ankles until her horns popped out from between the slats supporting Kumiko's mattress—had been absolutely hilarious.

Kumiko sighed. For so long, she had thought that horned beings were all demons or devils or things almost as bad, but Kai...Kai was just a girl. She heaved yet another sigh. "Damn."

Kai looked up at her curiously. "What's wrong?"

Kumiko shook her head. "Nothing much. Just have to readjust my worldview, is all."

Kai blinked at her. "...huh. Okay, I guess that's normal. But...you knew about all of this," she said, waving her hand to take in Eva's resort in the same way Kumiko had earlier, "before, right?"

"Yeah...it's just that you could say I've been given new information I didn't expect. Don't worry about it."

Kai looked at her for a moment, then smiled and turned her attention back to the others. "Okay! But hey, it isn't all bad, right? Now at least, you don't have to worry about hiding the truth around any of us."

Kumiko grinned crookedly and looked at the others as well. "Yeah, there's that, at least. If nothing else, I guess I can at least be honest with you guys." Her grin widened. It had been a long, long time since the last time she felt she could be honest about who she was...to be honest, she was looking forward to it a little. Kai grinned at her, and she grinned back, a little hesitantly before turning her attention to the drink she had been nursing for the past half hour. '_I was all alone for so long, trying so hard to follow the rules of the Burial Agency and keep my past a secret, but now here I am making friends with witches and vampires and even an oni, and I feel better and happier than I have in my whole life... Maybe Ciel knew what she was doing when she sent me here after all,'_ she thought. She couldn't help but grin.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Notes<strong>: In case you didn't know, the Ciel who is Kumiko's big-sister-figure is the one from the visual novel/anime Tsukihime. The Burial Agency is also borrowed from the same work, though details on it are sparse, so I've fleshed it out somewhat._


	13. Understanding A Girl's Heart

Title: Understand A Girl's Heart, or Exercises in Harem Building

Characters: Inugami Kotarou, Takane D. Goodman, Murakami Natsumi

Genre: Friendship Through Violence And Misunderstanding

Rated: T

Timeframe: After 'Darkness' arc, before summer break

Spoilers: None for the main story, just information about what Kotarou did after running away from Mahora when Natsumi graduated high school.

* * *

><p>"Takane," Kotarou said, bobbing his head at her in greeting.<p>

The blonde woman stared at him a moment, her eyes wide. "Inugami Kotarou...? You're older than you _should_ be..." her eyes narrowed. "And you stink like black magic."

Silence fell between them on the sidewalk.

"I could say the same of you," Kotarou said quietly as he tugged his wide brimmed hat down more securely on his head to ensure his ears were still hidden. "I never caught it before, but then again...that was _before_."

Takane watched him carefully for a moment, then motioned for him to follow as she headed for a nearby alley. He followed without complaint. They went through the narrow alley, crossed the street on the other side, and headed down another alley, much longer than the first. Takane stopped about halfway down this alley, with her back to Kotarou.

"You trained under _him_," Takane said. Her tone made it an accusation.

"If you mean Kagetaro, yeah, I did," Kotarou replied. He watched her carefully; any student of Kagetaro's was dangerous, now matter how she chose to present herself to the world.

Silence fell between them. With Takane turned away from him, Kotarou couldn't tell what she was thinking, though her body looked tense.

"...did he say anything about me?" Takane finally asked, still facing away from him.

Kotarou shook his head, but realized belatedly that she wouldn't be able to see that. "Not much; he did say he taught a 'young brat who decided to run away'. I didn't know it was you until I got back."

"Yes," Takane said, a hint of cynicism in her tone. "The great Takane D. Goodman, one of the magic association's more famous members, trained in illegal black magic until she ran away from her master at the age of ten."

Kotarou frowned as he looked at the woman in front of him. He hated seeing any girl upset, and that cynical sound she was making bothered him a lot. He knew Takane was a good person; she was an upstanding member of the local magic association after all, and from what he had always heard, she never passed up a chance to help someone who needed it. "Hmm..." '_She's thinking too much, just like Negi...She needs to lighten up,'_ he thought, and plunged ahead.

"Yeah, but I did the same thing, pretty much...except I did it twice: first with the people in Kyoto, then with Kagetaro. So that makes me worse than you," he said, his voice light in that way that drove Natsumi crazy when he was teasing her. Takane whirled on him, glaring as if he had insulted her.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" she snapped.

Kotarou's eyebrows went up and he raised his hands in a placating manner. "Hey hey, take it easy, okay?"

Takane glared at him as if he had just kicked her favorite puppy. "I will _not_ 'take it easy'," she snapped. "That lowlife black magic shadow user sent you to kill me, didn't he? He probably hates me after what I did; he saved my life, and I repaid him by stealing his rings and running away!"

Kotarou didn't know what to do; it appeared he had stepped on a great big Takane-shaped landmine. He had trouble enough dealing with Natsumi when she got in one of her moods, but she never acted like she hated the fact that he was still breathing, not like Takane was doing. He was a simple guy; he knew it and liked it. Smart people tended to talk too much, or think too much, or take all the blame for every stupid little thing that happened, like Negi and, judging by the way Takane was talking, like her, too. People like that needed a good old fashioned dose of idiocy to lighten up.

"Well?" Takane demanded after she had waited a moment for him to speak. "Aren't you going to say something?!"

Kotarou heaved a sigh and looked around for a moment, working out the quickest way to get to the location he wanted.

"Stop ignoring me!" Takane screamed at him. She moved right up in front of him, glaring, not unlike the way Natsumi did whenever they got into an argument. "Stop it!" she said, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes as she glared at him.

He heaved another sigh, took her by the shoulders—which, oddly enough, made her face go red—and held her out at arm's length while she glared. "Look," he said. "Kagetaro said he's only taken on two students: you, and me. He didn't say _anything_ about hating you-"

"Lies!"

Kotarou sighed for a third time, looked around to make sure nobody had spotted them in the alleyway, and threw Takane over his shoulder. She let out a startled squawk, but he ignored her, jumped up to the top of the nearest building, and raced along, heading for the forest that hid Eva's house. He wasn't heading for Eva's place, however; there would be too many people there. What he wanted was a nice deserted clearing where they could go wild without anyone watching to make them hold back.

"Let me down! Let me down right this instant you, you _beast_!" Takane wailed.

"Be quiet, will you?!" Kotarou said in exasperation as Takane pounded her fists against his back and kicked her legs wildly. She wasn't doing any damage whatsoever, but it was really quite annoying, in his opinion; he had to hold on to her tightly to keep from dropping her as he ran and jumped through the city rooftops, and her efforts to get him to let her go a hundred feet or so above the sidewalk only made him hold on tighter.

They quickly reached the edge of the city itself and entered the outskirts, and Kotarou was forced to descend to street level as the tall buildings thinned out. He continued on regardless, and noticed after a moment that Takane had stopped trying to escape; instead, she had stabilized her position by planting her hands together against his back so she could hold her head up and look around as he ran. He was grateful for her change in behavior, but he had a feeling she'd want to take it out on him as soon as he stopped. '_Well, that's what I'm doing this for,'_ he thought to himself. '_Takane needs to relax, and the best way to relax is by fighting!'_

They soon passed through the outskirts of the city and entered the forest, where Kotarou had to slow down even more. Going fast in a city was one thing—there was a lot of space up at roof level, after all—but if you tried to go fast in a forest you'd just end up bashing your head against a tree. The way to move fast in a forest, Kotarou mused to himself, was to go line of sight...running or jumping from spot to spot with a clear line of sight between one spot and the next. In this, all the ninja training he had done with Kaede served him well; jumping from tree branch to tree branch was _much _quicker than walking around at ground level, even if you _did _end up with leaves stuck in your hair.

They eventually reached the clearing Kotarou had been looking for, and he set Takane down on her feet. She staggered and fell against him, so he put an arm around her to steady her.

"Hey, you've gotta be careful; I didn't know your legs had fallen asleep," he said.

Takane blushed furiously as she looked away.

Kotarou waited until she could stand on her own before letting go of her. She immediately moved away from him, and stood facing him out of arm's length, arms crossed over her chest as she looked off to the side. "W-why did you take me here?" she demanded.

Kotarou cocked his head to the side. '_...huh?'_ He just looked at her a moment, unsure of how to respond to that. After all, wasn't it obvious...? Takane's eyes darted to his, then skittered away as she blushed. Heavily. _'Okay, whoa, wait, something's not right here,'_ he thought, suddenly nervous. Why was she acting like that? Was...was this one of those times big sis Chizuru would sigh and tell him he didn't understand a girl's heart? No, no way. There was no way Takane could possibly be interested in him; he was with Natsumi, after all. They had a pactio and everything! And besides, didn't she like Negi like all the other girls? '_Negi must be rubbing off on me...I'm thinking too much.' _He shook his head to clear it.

"Well," he said as he stripped off his shirt. "Let's get started!"

"Wh-wh-_what?!_" Takanae blurted, horrified as she her eyes locked on to his upper body. "I-I-I'm not, I can't, with you, wh-what about Murakami, we couldn't, I-I-I..."

"Come on Takane, you can't do anything like _that_, can you?" he said, waving his hand at her cute skirt and top. For some reason he didn't understand, her whole face had gone red. "Come on, you know you've gotta to do this sort of thing once in a while, right? I mean, me and Madoka do this all the time; it's a lot of fun."

Takane's whole head went red, and she started to squirm as she stood there, seemingly unable to look at him.

Kotarou just blinked at her. "Hey, are you feeling alright?" he used instant movement to close the distance between them, and Takane yelped in surprise, her eyes wide. "Do you have a fever? You should've told me if you did, Takane; we can't do anything if you're too sick," he said, gently taking hold of her head and moving in close to touch her forehead with his, the way big sis Chizuru always did when she used to check his temperature. Takane went still as a statue.

"Huh...guess not," Kotarou said as he abruptly let go and walked back, leaving Takane standing there with her eyes shut and her lips puckered. "Shadow Armor," Kotaoru said, finishing up a quick defense spell. '_Huh...I wonder why shadow-based armor spells always work better when they're up against __bare skin? Weird...' _he thought to himself as he waited for Takane to cast her own shadow armor spell. Kagetaro had been a good teacher, if an unorthodox one...his methods might have been questionable, but his results never were.

Takane's eyes shot open and she stared at Kotarou in open mouthed shock for a moment. "Sh...shadow armor? You're not going to...you aren't...huh?"

Kotarou cocked an eyebrow. "Hey, did you hit your head on a tree branch, Takane? We're going to spar! You need to relax, and I can't think of any better way to make that happen," he said, cracking his knuckles. "...aren't you going to summon your shadows? Kagetaro said his previous student was almost as good as he was at that...Takane? Are you alright? Your face is turning purple..."

"...why you...you...arrogant jackass...playing with a...a pure maiden's heart...in such a way...!" she growled out between clenched teeth. Her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists as she ripped off the cute top and skirt she wore, revealing the black underwear she wore underneath. She then kicked off the boots she wore. "Lorica Umbrae! Nocturne Nigredinis!"

"Nice, Takane! You've gotten good with the shadow golems!" he said as he watched a huge shadow golem come into being behind her. Her discarded clothing was quickly replaced by new clothing made of shadows, offering far more physical and magic defense despite covering less skin on her upper body.

Takane didn't reply. Instead, she kept her head down, her blonde hair hanging down and blocking his view of her face as she muttered under her breath; other shadow golems began to form, springing into existence all around her.

"Uh...Takane? Isn't that enough...?" Kotarou tried.

Takane ignored him and continued chanting.

"Uh..."

Kotarou started to sweat. Maybe he had caught Takane at a bad time...? He had no clue why she seemed so mad at him. _'Man, I sure am glad Natsumi's so easy to understand,'_ he thought to himself as he watched Takane. She didn't stop summoning shadow golems until pretty much her whole side of the clearing was full of them; only then did she look up at him, her face red and her eyes wide, a little vein twitching in her forehead as she pointed at him. "_**CRUSH HIM!**_"

Kotarou's eyes went wide and he scrambled to summon his shadow clones as a hundred shadow golems rushed to dogpile him.

* * *

><p>Kotarou lay on his back in the clearing, covered in bruises with a little trail of blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth as he looked up at the sky high above. "You got strong, Takane..."<p>

"I was always strong," the woman replied immediately from where she lay nearby, sounding somewhat affronted.

"Well yeah, I always knew _that_," Kotarou replied flippantly. "I meant you were stronger than I thought; I'm impressed. Sorry about your clothes."

Takane sighed. "It's alright. I already made a call; I just have to wait for Mei to get here with some replacements. She's bringing a shirt for you, too."

"Thanks," Kotarou said.

They laid there in a comfortable silence for a long moment.

"So..." Kotarou began carefully. "Why did you get so mad at me? I mean yeah, going all out as friends like that always makes you feel better after its over, but for a while there you looked like Touko when she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her back when Natsumi was in high school."

The silence turned awkward.

"...you _really_ do not understand women at all, Inugami Kotarou-san," Takane said stiffly, laying the formality on thick in her tone and word choice.

Kotarou glanced over at where she lay, then quickly away; he had forgotten she had been left mostly naked by the loss of her shadow armor spell. He would have offered her his shirt, but he had no idea what had happened to it; their spar session had pretty much completely destroyed the clearing. '_She's way bigger than Natsumi,'_ he thought, then shook his head to clear it. As far as that went, so were big sis Chizuru and big sis Ayaka, and big sis Chizuru was bigger than Takane, too. In the end though, Natsumi was Natsumi and everyone else was everyone else. He smiled as the image of her smiling face floated through his mind...then his smile froze.

Natsumi...

She wouldn't like the fact that he had been sparring with Takane, or 'that stripper girl' as most of Natsumi's friends called her.

_Especially_ not just the two of them.

_**ESPECIALLY**_ not just the two of them, alone, in a hidden clearing in the forest, away from the prying eyes of all their friends, and were now lying in a field, him half naked and Takane even more.

Kotarou began to sweat.

He desperately wanted to get up and run away, but he couldn't just leave Takane alone like that, not to mention the fact that she had really done a number on him; their fight had been the most fun he had had since his spar sessions with Kagetaro, and it had left him in a similar condition: so sore and bruised he could barely move. Takane was in much the same condition, he knew.

Just then, his nose caught a familiar scent, and his eyes widened in panic.

"...Takane?"

"Yes, Inugami Kotarou-san?" she replied, still excessively formal. He wondered how he had offended her.

"...can you get up?"

There was a long moment of silence, followed by a groan. "...no. Is something wrong?" she asked, a hint of nervousness creeping back into her voice.

"See, it's just that I can smell Natsumi and Mei coming this way..."

"Murakami...oh no..."

* * *

><p>Kotarou risked a quick look over at Natsumi as they walked down the sidewalk on their way back to Natsumi's apartment. She walked stiffly with her arms crossed over her chest, her mouth held in that cute little pout she did whenever she felt offended by something stupid he had done. She refused to look at him.<p>

Kotarou let his thoughts turn inward as he recalled the arrival of Mei and Natsumi at the clearing. Neither he nor Takane had expected Natsumi to show up; evidently Mei had run into her on the way, explained that Takane had somehow ruined her clothes in a private spar, and Natsumi had volunteered to come along in case anyone needed to be healed. Then they had arrived at the clearing...he felt like his ears should still be burning at the tongue lashing Natsumi had given him.

Natsumi was always so unsure of what he felt about her; that part of her annoyed him. What, did she think he'd just jump at the next pretty girl that walked by? As he had thought earlier, Natsumi was Natsumi, and everyone else was just everyone else.

"Want some ice cream?" he tried. Natsumi glared up at him, but her glare softened after a moment. He knew that she knew that was his awkward attempt at an apology for something he didn't even really understand. Though he _was_ trying to understand it, it was hard...he had a feeling he'd never understand 'a girl's heart', not really.

"...alright," she said a moment later, then turned on him, waving her finger in his face. "But don't think I've forgiven you with just this!" she said, pout-glaring up at him in that way she had no way of knowing made him want to just pick her up and hug her until he died. ...not that he'd ever _ever_ admit that to anyone **ever_._**

_**EVER**_.

"Okay then. Your treat?" he asked, smirking at her as she smacked him in the arm.

She crossed her arms again and let out a huff, looking away. "No! This time is yours! Definitely!"

He grinned back down at her. "'kay."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Notes<strong>: So, Kotarou's got the beginnings of a harem himself, though I doubt he'd call it that. With both Mei's probable crush and Madoka's definitely canon crush on him, his thing with Natsumi, and now Takane, he's off to a pretty good start...good thing he's loyal._


	14. A Little Twisted

Title: A Little Twisted

Characters: Miyazaki Nodoka, Jennifer Minindry

Genre: Friendship Through Weirdness

Rating: T

Timeframe: During Chapter 24, Catching Up

Spoilers: None, really, just information on Jennifer and Nodoka

* * *

><p>"Hey, Nodoka-chan. Are you ready?" Jennifer asked, her eyes shining as she held up a DVD and grinned.<p>

Nodoka stood just outside the doorway of the apartment Jennifer Minindry, former mage of the American Division, shared with her fellow American Division mage Max Linell and Nodoka's old friend and classmate, Okochi Akira, her intense curiosity warring with her sense of proper etiquette. "Y-yes, of course," she said, smiling back at the friendly American woman while her hands fidgeted with her bag.

"Come in," Jennifer said, stepping back to give Nodoka enough space.

Nodoka took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. She paused a brief moment to slip off her shoes in the entryway and took the opportunity to look around. As with most of her old friends and classmates, the inside of this particular apartment was a mystery, though there were plenty of rumors of course. Most were about the _adult_ things that simply _must_ be going on at all times within, with the supposed explanation for such speculation inevitably being something along the lines of 'because you know how Americans are'. Nodoka didn't know what she expected to find as she went further into the apartment, but evidence of the trio's latest orgy was not one of them. Nodoka's lips quirked upward. '_Paru will be disappointed,' _she thought in amusement. Everything seemed fairly neat and clean; much less suspicious, in its own way, than if everything had been absolutely perfect. The apartment looked _lived in_, and that helped her relax a little.

"Here, just sit down on the couch, and I'll bring out something to drink right away," Jennifer said, directing Nodoka toward the aforementioned piece of furniture. She grinned brightly when Nodoka had seated herself, and skipped off toward the kitchen. Left alone for the moment, Nodoka took the opportunity to look at things more closely. The couch was soft and comfortable in the way only a good couch that had been used for years could be, much like the one in Nodoka's own apartment. In fact...Nodoka paused to give the room a more thorough once-over. It was a great deal like her own apartment, if much larger; there was even a piece of tape holding the battery cover in place on the back of the remote control for the TV, much like her own. She grinned ruefully. Whatever Haruna had led her to expect, this wasn't it.

"Sorry, Akira drank the rest of the tea," Jennifer said as she bustled back into the room, carrying a bottle of water and a cup of some soft drink. She handed over the cup and Nodoka thanked her, eliciting another big grin from Jennifer.

Nodoka took a sip of the drink and looked at it in surprise. "How did you know I liked this flavor of coke...?" she asked, looking at the American woman.

Jennifer made a crooked little grin. "I asked Yue-chan what you liked when I knew you were coming..." she said, looking away to hide the cute blush that had sprung up on her cheeks. "But anyway! Are you ready to watch that movie?" she asked, pointing to the DVD case she had left lying on the coffee table.

Nodoka eyed it for a moment. She remembered seeing advertisements for it when it was still in theaters; critics had called it 'sappy' and 'poorly thought out', but she recalled Misa saying it was alright. "Okay."

"Great!" Jennifer said, lively as ever as she picked up the DVD and knelt down to put it in the DVD player set up under the TV. She looked back at Nodoka a few seconds later and smiled, and stood up. She made her way over to the couch, took up the remote control, and plopped down next to Nodoka, crossing her legs.

Nodoka looked down; Jennifer's knee was poking her in the leg. She decided to ignore it, however, as Jennifer worked her way through the previews and up to the DVD's main menu. A few seconds after that, the opening strains of the movie's forgettable theme filled her ears.

* * *

><p>"That was pretty cool," Jennifer said, her eyes shining as she recalled the movie's climax, which involved a drastic confrontation between the heroine's lover and the man who had been blackmailing her.<p>

Nodoka had thought it rather dull and typical herself, but nodded her head in agreement anyway. She liked Jennifer; the woman was friendly and seemed to crave physical contact in a way that was, in spite of the absurdity of a grown woman behaving in such a manner, oddly endearing...almost like a child who wanted a hug. All throughout the movie, Jennifer had been touching her in some way, whether by excitedly grabbing her hand during the action parts or leaning against her during the sad parts. It was something she had forgotten about the woman: she was a very physical person, and seemed to need to touch others constantly. Nodoka wondered if Jennifer did the same thing with Max-sensei and Akira, but quickly made herself think of something else, something safer. Like puppies. And kittens. And not Jennifer dressed up in a playboy-esque kitten suit, such as she had seen in a certain other friend's sketchbook.

"Damn it..." Nodoka muttered under her breath. Haruna would pay for this...!

"Did you say something?" Jennifer asked, her eyes shining as she smiled at her, clearly still excited over the melodramatic ending of the movie.

"Ah, er, I mean...that sure was an...an interesting movie, wasn't it?" Nodoka said lamely, trying her best to smile back at her friend. They had been friends for a long time, in fact; Jennifer had always been friendly and talkative, and the two of them had gotten along almost from the start...the ease with which Jennifer could go into others' dreams via magic had always fascinated her as well. Nodoka could manage such a thing as dream walking herself, but the spells required were difficult. The odd little magical artifact Negi-kun had given her years ago, the so-called 'Dreamgazer', helped, but it still required intense concentration to activate, and remaining in someone's dream wasn't exactly easy.

"Yep!" Jennifer said as she reluctantly tore herself away from Nodoka and moved toward the TV. "How are the others?" she asked as she knelt down in front of the DVD player.

Nodoka couldn't help but grin. "Haruna's the same as she ever was, only..."

"Only more so?" Jennifer helpfully supplied as she popped the DVD back into its case.

"Yes, only more so," Nodoka said, nodding. "She draws one weekly manga and two monthly ones, and also draws doujins she sells at the summer and winter Comiket." Nodoka's face went red as she recalled the contents of those particular doujins...'Dog Boy Kojirou' and 'Magical Teacher Onion-sensei' had quite the...er... 'friendship' in the alternate universe Haruna's doujin works took place in. 'Magical Girl Misa' only complicated the matter. One of Haruna's first doujins had also included the character 'Bookstore-chan', but Nodoka had quickly put an end to _that_. As for the others, well...Misa didn't seem to mind, and as far as Nodoka could tell, Negi and Kotarou were both unaware of their dopplegangers' roles in Haruna's doujins.

"Sounds like a lot of work," Jennifer said as she put the DVD case on top of the television set and moved back to the couch. She plopped down on the cushion next to Nodoka.

"It is," Nodoka replied. "But she has a lot of assistants, and she's always been fast at drawing." Jennifer smiled at her, and Nodoka couldn't think of anything else to say. She had gotten used to small talk long ago, but at times it still gave her trouble. This seemed to be one of those times.

"I know it's been on your mind for a while... Want me to teach you about dream walking now?" Jennifer asked.

Nodoka breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, please!" Jennifer giggled in reply, and Nodoka was again struck by the fact that, even though the other woman always seemed so open and friendly, it seemed there was a wall up in Jennifer's mind, keeping others from getting too close. Nodoka had known her long enough to understand Jennifer really liked her and the others, and yet that wall...she wondered if Jennifer was intentionally keeping others at a distance, or if she even realized she was doing it.

"Okay," Jennifer said, scooting around to face Nodoka. Nodoka scooted to face her on the couch, and Jennifer smiled. "Now," she said, leaning close and looking Nodoka in the eye. "This is very, very important! What happens, you must not lose sight of yourself," she said. "This will be dangerous, more dangerous than any other time you've gone into someone's dream."

Nodoka frowned, puzzled. "Why? Nothing in a dream is real, it's only a representation of—" she cut herself off, a little offended when Jennifer burst into laughter. "What? What are you laughing at? Are you saying that's wrong?"

When her laughing fit was over, Jennifer grinned and wiped her eyes. "Yes! Yes that's wrong! What you just said is what they want you to think. It's safer when you think about it that way, but it's also the just about totally wrong, and it's weak, too. That's what they call Dream Walking, and it's pretty much just peeking in the back window of somebody's soul, you voyeur, you," Jennifer said, grinning even wider at Nodoka to show the last part was only a joke. "What I'm going to teach you is _way_ more effective and up front! I'll teach you Dream Diving. It's _way_ less creepy, and a good person like you can help a lot of people that way," she said, grabbing a throw pillow, decorated with cute little embroidered cats all around the perimeter, and placing it on her lap.

"So," Nodoka said, a little miffed at being called a voyeur despite the fact that both her meager dream walking skills and her pactio artifact seemed to point in that direction, "you're telling me that all the research I've done is based on a lie?"

Jennifer nodded as her fingers poked and prodded at the edges of the throw pillow. "Yep!"

Nodoka just looked at her. How could Jennifer be so sure of that? Dream Walking was a centuries-old technique, its origins lost in the mists of time. It was considered an excellent tool for mage-psychiatrists in Mundus Magicus and in the magic centers of Earth who were well versed in mental-based magic, with a well known set of rules and a strict code of conduct. Many, many books had been written on the subject and they even taught college courses on it in Mundus Magicus, and she had seen it in use and even used it herself many, many times since the incident with Gaze six years ago, the one that had resulted in Negi giving her the Dreamgazer, a powerful little magic charm on a thin gold chain. Gaze had been a shapeshifter of some sort with a grudge against the Springfield family for actions apparently performed by Negi's father Nagi during the war two decades ago. Negi had told her the Dreamgazer allowed Gaze to manipulate others' dreams, but she had never been able to figure out how it worked as anything but a sort of booster to her own abilities. "Then what is the truth?"

"And that's where it can get scary," Jennifer said, nodding at her. "When you go Dream Diving, you can do a _huge_ amount of good in a very short time, but you're also vulnerable. Not in any kind of physical way, but in your _soul_. The damage will heal, but until then you're not whole. Understand?" she asked, still smiling.

Nodoka hesitantly nodded, wondering how Jennifer could smile while talking about something so horrible. She had heard of dream walkers who had been 'burned out', for lack of a better word, rendered mindless by some horrible accident while dream walking. Had they actually been dream diving instead...?

"Good," Jennifer continued. "In Dream Diving, protecting your soul is everything. Different people manage it different ways, through building walls, speed, or even an iron will, but make no mistake: any injury you receive in a dream dive is real, only it's a wound on your soul, not your body."

Nodoka was confused and a little shaken at that; it went against a great deal of what she had read and been taught, but...

"Go ahead, look in your book," Jennifer told her, still smiling.

Nodoka took out her pactio card. "Adeat." She opened her book and said Jennifer's name, and sure enough, Jennifer's thoughts were laid bare on the page before her.

_'It's all true, but it's a little more complicated than that. I wonder if cute Nodoka-chan can handle it? I think so, she's a good person, and she's strong too, way stronger than I am. Too bad she can't handle the whole thing yet~'_

Nodoka looked up at Jennifer, cocking an eyebrow. Jennifer looked away, her cheeks coloring slightly. "Why didn't Negi-kun tell me about this?" Nodoka asked.

"He probably doesn't even know," Jennifer replied, poking the tips of her fingers together as she looked down at the pillow in her lap. "Most mages don't. If everyone knew you could go so far into someone's dream and meet them soul to soul...it's a very intimate thing. Oh! Look what you made me say!" she said, covering her face with her hands.

Nodoka quickly looked away. Unfortunately, her gaze landed on the open pages of her book-

_'—more intimate than making love—'_

-and she quickly snapped it shut and looked away. She liked to think about that sort of thing—what healthy young woman didn't, from time to time?—but that didn't make it any less embarrassing when it was brought up in such a way. But...another thought dawned in her mind and her expression turned to one of horrified realization. _'What if the wrong sort of person gained this skill? What would happen if someone like that Chigusa woman from the Kyoto trip in Negi's first year as a teacher gained an ability like this? What if Fate did?' _The thought was chilling. The idea that someone could just jump into your mind and rearrange things was terrifying, even more so when she realized such a thing might not even be noticeable to the victim. How would you know if someone reached into your mind and fixed it so that you would fall in love with only that person? Nodoka shivered.

"Are you sure you want to continue?" Jennifer asked.

Nodoka looked up at her nervously, then away. What did she _really_ know about the other woman, anyway? Jennifer had shown up six years ago, after the incident where Akira had almost drowned half the city. Jennifer never seemed to last more than a month at any particular job before making some mistake that got her fired. Jennifer was always acting friendly and smiling at everyone...but was that real, or just an act? No one but Max and Akira were _really_ close to her; even Yuuna, Makie, and Ako didn't seem to know much about her, and they had all spent a lot of time together with her and Akira and Max, solving various incidents back in high school. Nodoka shivered again as her mind finally worked its way around to the question she had been wanting to avoid: Had Jennifer ever changed anyone? Had Jennifer ever changed _her_? Would she even know if she _did_? Her gaze drifted over to Jennifer, who chose that moment to look up at her.

Jennifer seemed to wilt under Nodoka's expression. She looked back down at the throw pillow with its little embroidered cats, her fingers fumbling with the edges; she hugged it to her body. "You're thinking I've done bad things, aren't you?" she said, her voice distant. She didn't wait for Nodoka's response, but continued on. "I've hurt a lot of..." she trailed off for a second, shook her head as if to clear it, cleared her throat, and soldiered on. "I've hurt a lot of people, but not like you're thinking, not with Dream Diving. But as scary as it is," she said, hugging the pillow more tightly still, "I think it's important that you learn how to do it and how to defend against it. Things are different in Mundus Magicus...it's a whole different place than Earth, and you'll need every edge you can get. Who knows...it could even save your life."

Nodoka swallowed the lump in her throat from Jennifer's hesitant admission of hurting a lot of people, hesitated, and finally nodded. "I-I think you're right...I don't think I'll be able to get a good night's sleep until I learn more about how it works," she said. _'So I can defend myself against anybody trying to change my mind, especially you,'_ she thought. She felt bad for suspecting Jennifer in something like that, but she was rapidly realizing that Dream Diving, far from the way its milder variations were commonly presented, was quite possibly one of the most dangerous and corrupting skills she had ever even heard of.

Jennifer nodded. "That's good, cute Nodoka-chan..." she said, seemingly a million miles away. She abruptly snapped back to the present and looked Nodoka in the eye. "Look in your book and ask me my name."

Nodoka gave her an odd look, but opened her mind reading book and did as she asked. "What is your name?" She looked down at the page and her eyebrows shot up. "What..."

"Go ahead, say them out loud," Jennifer said, looking away and holding the throw pillow loosely against her chest.

"The...Mad Witch of the Wastes?" Nodoka asked as she looked up at Jennifer.

Jennifer nodded. "Go on."

"The Berserker Girl of the Wastes, the Sourge of Whitefall, The Blood Splattered Witch, the Bone Eater, The Soul Stealer..." Nodoka felt as if she was about to faint as she looked at the long, long list of names. The list covered the first page, then filled the second, and started in on the third before Nodoka snapped her book shut, thankful she hadn't been standing up as she leaned against the back of the couch. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of," Jennifer said softly after a moment, seeming to not even see Nodoka as her eyes focused on something in the far distance, as if recalling old memories. "Open it back up."

Nodoka reluctantly opened her book again and gasped at the mishmash of images and words scrawled haphazardly across the pages, filling each page with a jumble of unconnected ideas. "What is..." She was dumbstruck. Never had she seen a mind so fractured as this...!

"I'm probably crazy, you know," Jennifer said, seemingly coming back to the present. She made a rueful grin. "I don't remember my real name or my parents or my birthplace, only blood and violence and killing anything that came my way." She looked down at her lap as she hugged the pillow to her chest.

"But that's—!"

Jennifer cut her off. "Terrible? Impossible? All you need is a glance at _that_," Jennifer said, pointing at Nodoka's book, "to see it's true. I earned each and every one of those titles. This isn't even my real body," she said, putting a hand on her chest.

"Then you...with Dream Diving..." Nodoka said, eyes widening in horror as understanding dawned.

"That's right," Jennifer said, her smile completely gone, her expression neutral as her eyes again focused on something in the far distance. "I stole this body from a little girl, years ago. I...I reached out and found her as I lay dying, and back then I didn't know any better. I was saved, eventually...but it was far too late for that little girl," Jennifer said.

Nodoka shivered at the distant look in Jennifer's eyes. She wanted to run screaming from the room, but...would Jennifer let her? She didn't know what to think, and now that Jennifer herself had told her she was insane, little bits and pieces of memories from the past six years came to mind that reinforced the idea. Times when Jennifer reacted to events differently than the rest; times when she wandered off, times when she stared off into the distance like she had done seconds before...times when she had stood and fought, unafraid of enemies that had left everyone else shaking in terror. A sense of shame crept over Nodoka as she began to recall all those times Jennifer had helped her and the others, both in normal day to day living and during the many, many incidents they had had to resolve. Despite, well, _everything_, Jennifer had always been there somewhere, beating up an enemy or supporting Nodoka and the rest, a constant figure in the background when not actively taking part in combat herself.

Jennifer had done everything she could for them for the past six years, through good and bad, victory and defeat, suffered injuries and supported the injured the best she could, and yet...

Nodoka shivered. This would require a lot of thought to deal with. "Who...who saved you?" she finally asked.

Jennifer grinned, fully in the present again, and it was so real Nodoka wanted to grin along with her. "The first time I was saved by a young man I was later told was called Nagi Springfield," she said. Her grin widened at Nodoka's surprised reaction to that. "He stopped me, and he and his friends defeated my 'Keepers'." Her grin abruptly vanished. "I believe you would recognize one of them...his name was Gaze, and he used that tool in your pocket."

Nodoka nearly jumped out of her skin at that. As it was, she drew her collapsible backup wand as she scrambled off the couch and stood, legs spread in a stable yet mobile stance, shakily pointing her wand at Jennifer, who lunged to her feet as well, the coffee table between them. "You...! You're in league with Fate! How could you? How _could_ you?!"

The look in Jennifer's eyes terrified Nodoka more than the admission that one of her keepers was Gaze, the shapeshifter from six years ago who had been friends with Fate. The look in Jennifer's eyes was like that of some great predator, a dragon or a griffin perhaps.

After a few seconds of tension between the two of them, the look in Jennifer's eyes faded and she grinned. "Nope! And could you please not point that at me? It makes me nervous."

Nodoka blinked and lowered her wand slightly, and that moment of hesitation was all it took. Jennifer darted forward over the coffee table, grabbed both sides of Nodoka's head, and slammed their foreheads together.

Everything went dark.

* * *

><p>"Hey...hey pretty lady. Are you okay?"<p>

Nodoka just lay there on the hard ground for a moment, wondering where she was. It took her a long, long moment to recall that she had been watching a movie with Jennifer, and then...

She scrambled to her feet, reaching for the collapsible wand she kept in her pocket at all times, but it wasn't there. It was only then that she realized something was wrong with her surroundings.

Gone was the couch she had been sitting on with Jennifer. In fact, that entire apartment was gone, replaced by a barren wasteland like nothing she had ever seen before. The sky was covered in roiling blood red clouds, the ground was black and charred but for the occasional clump of dead gray grass, and what looked disturbingly like great splotches of blood dotted the landscape of rolling, rocky hills. A fine gray mist hung in the air, hindering her sight.

"Hey lady, who are you? Not many people come here, you know? Not for a long time."

Nodoka turned to look at the speaker, and paused. There before her stood an oddly familiar child, painfully thin. The poor thing was all skin and bones...! Something about the young girl's face grabbed at her attention, as if she had seen the girl before somewhere...and then it occurred to her that, in fact, she had. She gasped out the name. "Jennifer...!"

The girl cocked her head to the side. "Huh? Who's that? I'm the Bone Eater," she said, grinning to show a mouthful of pointed teeth that would look more at home in a shark. Nodoka scrambled back, trying to get some distance between them, but the girl didn't try to follow; instead, she simply cocked her head to the side again in a gesture Nodoka was quickly becoming familiar with.

"Are you scared?" the little girl asked. "You don't have to worry; I won't eat your bones. Big bro Nagi would be sad if I did!" she said happily, nodding to herself. "You're lucky you saw me first though; if it had been my big sis Blood Splatter, well...it's a good thing you saw me first!" the little girl said, beaming at her.

Nodoka dragged her gaze away from the little girl's pointed teeth and looked her in the eye. "'Big sis Blood Splatter'...?"

"Yep!" the little girl said. "The Blood Splattered Witch is her real name, but we all call her Blood Splatter!"

Nodoka looked around nervously, trying to get her bearings in the bizarre world in which she found herself, but there was nothing familiar, no way to even tell direction, not that she could see. There seemed to be some sort of ambient light source, but she saw no sun or moon in the sky, only those same blood red clouds, covering every inch of sky...there wasn't even any prevailing wind direction, just gusts blowing at random from every direction. "How many of you are there?" she asked at last.

The Bone Eater grinned. "Lots!"

"I-I see..." Nodoka said. The whole place just felt so...so _off_ that she found herself looking over her shoulder to see if anything was trying to sneak up behind her.

"Come on!" the Bone Eater said excitedly as she took Nodoka's hand. "Let's go see big sis Scourge, she'll know what to do with you!"

Nodoka flinched when the little girl reached for her hand, but the girl grabbed it anyway, and she let herself be led along. "'Big sis Scourge'?" she asked. "The Scourge of Whitefall?"

The little girl looked at her, wide eyed in surprised admiration. "Wow, you're smart!" she said, a look of wonder on her face. "That's so cool! How did you know her real name?"

Nodoka hesitated for a moment. She didn't think for a minute she could trust someone like The Bone Eater, but she had to answer the ghoulish little girl's question before she made her angry. "...a friend told me," she said hesitantly.

The girl gave her a strange look. "...you have some pretty strange friends, pretty lady. Anyway, let's go!"

* * *

><p>What followed was one of the strangest walks Nodoka had ever taken. Time seemed to flow strangely; she couldn't tell how long it took the two of them to reach the odd gravel road or even how long it took her to realize that what she was walking on wasn't gravel, but as soon as she did, she stopped. The Bone Eater walked on a few paces before turning around to give her another curious look, little puffs of white dust coming up from the ground with each step.<p>

Nodoka frowned as she looked down at the roadway, unable to understand just what she was seeing. She knelt down and scooped up a handful of 'gravel' for a closer look. Something about it was odd in a way she couldn't quite put her finger on. The gravel was composed of little lightweight chunks of some chalky grayish-white material, porous, almost like—Nodoka shrieked as she flung the handful of gravel away and scrambled off the road.

"Haha! You're funny, pretty lady," The Bone Eater said, pointing at her as she grinned her horrible grin.

"Th-they're _bones_!" Nodoka managed after a moment, pointing at the road.

The Bone Eater tilted her head to the side, for all the world like a curious eight year old. "Of course they're bones, this is the Boneway, silly!"

Nodoka shivered as she looked at the smirking little ghoul. What had she gotten herself into...?

* * *

><p>Nodoka allowed the little girl to lead her on. It was difficult to tell time in such an unchanging world, but Nodoka thought that perhaps ten minutes might have passed before she began to notice the landscape changing around them. The blood splattered nightmare they had been walking through before had slowly changed into a nightmare of a different sort before she realized it. Gone were the blasted, charred hills from earlier, replaced by a world of bones. What at first glance appeared to be a distant forest of leafless white trees became millions of millions of bones, so big they couldn't have come from anything that had ever walked the earth, all jutting out of the ground in a macabre mockery of a forest.<p>

And, Nodoka realized to her mounting disquiet, the roadway and the forest weren't the only examples.

Bones were everywhere, making a disgusting mockery of anything and everything one might find on Earth, from grass and trees to fences and even, if her eyes didn't deceive her, a picturesque little house a fair distance from the road. Nodoka shuddered.

"What...is this?" she asked, looking around.

"This is my kingdom!" the little girl said, running out in front of Nodoka with her arms out to the sides like an airplane. She paused, facing away from Nodoka, as if waiting for her reply.

"It's very..." Nodoka said, trailing off when she couldn't think of anything to say. 'Appalling'? 'Disturbing'? 'Nightmarish'? Hardly appropriate to the situation. One did not call their traveling companion's 'kingdom' appalling or disturbing or nightmarish when said traveling companion had a name like The Bone Eater. She quickly discovered it didn't matter.

"You don't have to lie," the little girl said, her voice sounding strangely mature. "I know how messed up it is. A pale shadow of what is real..."

Nodoka hesitated. The little girl sounded so lonely, as if no one else in the world could understand her.

"I will not lie to you," the little girl said, turning around to face her. Nodoka was taken aback by the distinctly un-childlike, neutral expression on the girl's face. "My earliest memory is of blood. Blood on the floors. Blood on the walls. Blood on the ceiling... Blood on _me,_" she said, looking at her hands as if she could still see it. "Old and dried, but blood all the same. Blood. And bones."

"But..." Nodoka said.

The little girl made a small cynical smile that hurt Nodoka's heart to see on such a young-seeming face. "They were my parents, you know?" she said, looking away. "But I did it anyway. Nothing there but bones. When Gaze and the others found me, I was chewing on a bone. Someone started calling me the Bone Eater, and the nickname stuck. It wasn't until later that I actually earned it, though."

"But...but you didn't have a name? A _real_ name?" Nodoka asked, horrified at the little girl's story.

The girl shook her head. "No. The ones who found me were more interested in _what_ I was rather than _who_. I was weak then; Gaze caught me in the dream and made me into his slave. They gave me my name. Though I may have gone by a false name from time to time, I am and always have been The Bone Eater." Something changed in her expression and she looked like a happy little girl again as she looked at something behind Nodoka. "Oh! Hi big sis Blood Splatter!"

As soon as the little girl said the name, Nodoka's sense of smell was overwhelmed by the stench of blood, strong enough to make her stomach turn. She desperately wanted to run away, but she forced herself to turn around and face the being standing behind her. As she caught a glance of that blood soaked form, however, she had to bite back a scream.

Judging by her long, pointy ears, the woman was an elf, though Nodoka couldn't make out any other details; the woman was covered in blood from head to toe but for the whites of her eyes. A puddle of red stained the bone gravel that made up the road under her feet.

"Bone Eater," the elf woman said, her voice low and husky. "You know they wanted her brought before them as soon as she arrived."

The Bone Eater started to speak, but 'Big Sis Blood Splatter' shut her up with a flying kick to the face that knocked the girl sprawling, then turned her attention on Nodoka and had her up and flung over her shoulder before she could react.

"Wait!" Nodoka demanded as the elf woman took off at a run. "What about—"

"The Bone Eater will recover; _that_ monster won't be hurt by one such as I," the elf woman replied as she took a great bounding leap. Nodoka's stomach shot up into her throat and she yelped in surprise as the bloody elf woman flew through the air for a hundred yards or more before touching back down only to run along a few paces and leap again. She noted with some disquiet that the blood coating the woman was getting onto her skin and clothes, though it seemed to fade away after a few seconds.

Nodoka, ever a hardy soul, quickly got used to the sensation of being launched crazily through the air and began to pay some attention to her surroundings. Being a veteran dream walker, the thing she found most shocking was the sheer size of Jennifer's dream world, for that was the only explanation for where she was. Soon, the boneyards of the Bone Eater's 'Kingdom'—unusually large itself—dropped behind them, replaced by a sandy desert, which was in turn replaced by a volcanic wasteland. Nodoka jerked in surprise as she caught a glimpse of something else moving. "I saw something!"

The elf woman glanced over her shoulder and shrugged, not once breaking stride as she hit the ground, ran a few steps, and again launched the two of them through the air. "That is only the Burning Witch; she won't bother us."

Nodoka looked back curiously at the ashen shape moving among the lava flows; it was quickly lost from sight. "How many live here?" she asked.

The elf woman landed, ran a few steps, and launched herself off a boulder before the took the time to answer.

"Lots."

Nodoka fell silent again. Everything about this place was strange, from its ridiculous size to the fact that many individuals seemed to live within the same dream world...it went against everything she knew, everything she had been taught about dream worlds and the way they worked. Dream worlds _couldn't_ be so big...some people had the occasional secondary personality or two hidden away somewhere, but they were never so...so _developed_ as what she had seen here, and dreamworlds were _never_ a patchwork of individual realms like this...!

As Nodoka had noted before, time seemed to pass strangely in Jennifer's dreamworld; the Blood Splattered Witch ran and jumped for what must have been miles and miles, and Nodoka distinctly remembered looking around at all the scenery, taking in every confusing and disturbing detail she could, from the various inhabitants to the lands they had created for themselves, and yet it seemed only a few minutes had passed before the elf woman spoke again.

"Look ahead," the bloody elf woman said. Nodoka craned her neck to look in the direction the elf woman was running, and found herself staring.

"...what is that?" she asked, almost fearing the answer.

"The Core," the elf woman replied.

Nodoka watched the huge jagged upthrust of shiny black rock looming in the distance like some story book villain's evil lair as they approached. Nodoka, in six years of dream walking, had never seen or read of anything approaching the size of it; the sheer scale of the thing was enough to give her a headache, which only intensified when she realized that what she had first taken to be small jumbles of stone here and there on the enormous black mass were actually massive castles and towers, each built on the same dizzying scale as the mountain itself. "What is it...?" she found herself repeating.

"It is The Core," the elf woman repeated. "The center of our world. This is the monument we built, each of us adding to it as we saw fit." She paused to land, run, and jump again. "What you see before you is the heart of a hundred million souls."

"A hundred million..." Nodoka repeated, horrified. "How? How are there that many of you?!" she demanded. The number was simply unthinkable; she couldn't work her mind around it. "That's impossible!"

"Time," the woman said simply. "Lots of time. Every time we find another body, our number increases; that is the only constant here."

The woman seemed disinclined to speak any more on the subject, and Nodoka, overcome by the oppressive size of the structure and the insane numbers being thrown around, didn't pry. Before this day, Nodoka had thought she knew what it meant to call something 'big'. To her, Library Island's underground tunnel system was 'big'. The pyramids of Egypt were 'big'. The World Tree was 'big'. They were all as playthings beside the monstrosity she found herself staring at. Tiny details she had barely noticed grew into massive structures as they approached; her eyes couldn't figure out what to focus on.

Eventually, she spotted a set of doors that must have been huge, and yet from her perspective they appeared too small for anyone larger than the youngest of children to use; a tiny figure stood in front of them. The figure quickly grew into a sizable statue as they approached.

Nodoka couldn't help but stare at the familiar face on the statue. She supposed the elf woman must have sensed her interest, for she slowed to a stop and finally set Nodoka down on her feet.

"How...?" Nodoka managed to say, leaning against the blood covered elf woman for support. Looking at that statue's face, she had no doubt as to the identity of the man it was meant to honor.

"Nagi Springfield saved us," the elf woman said simply as she looked up at the statue. "He saved us when the Bone Eater was still a child, before she could come into her power."

"But...but that's _Nagi Springfield_!" Nodoka said, her excitement coming through in her voice. "Jennifer never said she knew him! She just told me he saved her, but I thought..."

"The Bone Eater was a child at the time...she remembers little. Others among us, however..." The elf woman seemed content to leave it at that and walked around the statue toward the enormous double doors set deep into the side of the enormous black structure behind the statue. Nodoka blinked in surprise as those doors, though each door was easily five hundred feet tall, they swung open with smooth and silent ease, revealing an equally large hall behind them, its vaulted ceilings a mind boggling distance away even for Miyazaki Nodoka, who had faced bottomless pits and gaping chasms in the great secret caverns of Tibet. She followed in awe, taking in every detail as the elf woman led the way. Portraits hung in rows upon the walls, stretching in some places all the way to the ceiling, while statues of various sizes were placed almost at random here and there upon the floor, though none were so large as the one outside.

"Who are all these people? Is...is this more of you?" Nodoka asked. There were thousands...no, _millions _of portraits on the walls

The elf woman stopped walking and shook her head, a slight smile breaking her neutral expression for the first time Nodoka could remember since first meeting her. "These are the ones who were precious to us in life; our siblings, our lovers, our victims...our killers. They're all here," the elf woman said as she turned to Nodoka and held her arms out to the sides as if to take in the entire hall. "Our siblings because they were with us, our lovers because they were close to us, our victims because they were closer, and our killers because they were the closest of all; they tried to set us free," she said, looking fondly at one of the statues.

Nodoka stared at the woman, whose smile had turned slightly cynical.

"All that any of us want is to be set free, outsider. Set free from this endless cycle of death and rebirth and be allowed to soar. Set free from the madness that killed us all in the end. Set free from the tragedy of our existence among the living." The elf woman started walking again, only to pause at another, smaller door, which was 'smaller' only when compared to the massive double doors of the entryway. She turned back to Nodoka. "All any of us ever wanted, outsider, was the peace of death. But now, that is no longer an issue. Now..." the elf woman paused while the door behind her opened. "Now, we don't have to worry; _he_ broke the cycle."

Nodoka was left speechless, staring at the massive statue of Max Linell that dominated the room on the other side of the door. It easily dwarfed every other statue she had seen thus far; a hundred feet high, it was incredibly lifelike in spite of its size. "But...how? What did he do?"

And, much to Nodoka's surprise, the elf woman made a genuine smile, the hardness in her eyes softening. "He saved us all. While Nagi Springfield saved The Bone Eater from her masters, Max Linell saved us all from our own personal hell. He came here of his own choice, drew out our personal demons, and set us free. The blood drenched cycle of death and rebirth is over; we are free. Freed from the cursed need to flee to an unborn child's body upon our death. Freed from the violence and suffering. Because of him, and his actions; because he is who he is. When the Bone Eater's body dies, it will be over, and we can finally rest."

Nodoka's eyes went back to the statue, then the three figures standing below it. She realized with a start that they had been there all along; she just hadn't noticed them with the statue occupying her attention. The tallest of the three, a stunningly attractive woman with long black hair and an olive complexion, stepped forward, followed closely by the other two.

The elf woman stepped forward as well, motioning for Nodoka to follow. The five women met halfway between the door and the statue. Nodoka looked from her guide to the other three nervously as they looked her over.

"So...you are the Dream Diver we have heard so much about?" the beautiful woman said. It wasn't a question so much as a statement of fact.

Nodoka nodded hesitantly. "I...I think so. I asked Jennifer to train me." Silence followed her proclamation while the three women looked at each other before turning their attention back to her.

Finally, the tallest one spoke again. "Are you crazy? That kind of thing is dangerous."

Nodoka just gaped at them as the three grinned at her. "What...?" She turned to her guide and found the elf woman wore a faint smile. "I don't understand..."

"Don't worry," the youngest and shortest of the trio said. She had long blonde hair and looked as if she hadn't made it out of her teens before her death. "We don't bite."

"Much," the last of the trio said. She was by far the oldest looking woman Nodoka had seen in this place; she was probably in her early fifties if Nodoka was any judge. The woman was of average height and build, and had a face that seemed youthful even through the wrinkles and hair that had gone mostly silver. Everything about her, from her eyes to the way she carried herself reminded Nodoka of those who had seen much combat. The older woman noticed the way Nodoka was looking at her and nodded at her, one ally to another.

"They call me the Scourge of Whitefall," the woman said. "You may call me Scourge." Seeing her take the lead, the other two offered up their names as well.

"I'm the Berserker Girl of the Wastes," the pretty teenager said as she curtsied. "You can call me Berserk, if you'd like."

"And I am called the Soul Stealer," the tall woman said. "You may call me whatever you wish."

"Ah...I am Miyazaki Nodoka," Nodoka said, bowing politely.

"Excellent," the oldest one said. "Now that we have completed the formalities, I believe we have some mistakes to clear up." The other two nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean?" Nodoka asked nervously. Out of all the strange people she had seen in this place, these three set her most on edge. It wasn't any overt act on any of their parts, but more a general feeling of tension in the air, as of power barely kept under rein. She had sensed much the same thing when traveling with the Blood Splattered Witch—who, she noted, had quietly exited the room—and the Bone Eater, but much more powerful.

"Many things. But first," the middle one said, "you must understand something. Jennifer is...unique. While each of us are our own person, trapped here after our deaths, Jennifer is something else."

"What do you mean?" Nodoka asked.

"She is like a child, playing house," the oldest one said. The other two nodded.

"She knows what is expected of her, but the existence known as Jennifer only came into being fifteen years ago, thrust into a maturing body, completely ignorant of everything around her," the youngest one said.

"The Bone Eater's former body was run by an amalgamation of feelings, channeled by the three of us," the middle one said. "She didn't solidify as the Jennifer you know now until she met Max Linell. We can only offer our wisdom to her, such as it is."

"She is still fragile," the oldest one said, giving Nodoka a stern look. "She always will be, but as long as Max and now Akira are beside her, she will be fine."

"Why are you telling me this?" Nodoka asked

"Because she loves you, the middle one said. "As she loves Max and Akira and Makie and the rest. She _trusts_ you, so your betrayal hurt her in a way that shook even the foundations of this place."

Nodoka frowned. "Betrayal? I don't—" The youngest one moved so fast she didn't have time to defend herself before Berserk was on her. The young woman grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, lifted her up with surprising strength, and slammed her into the ground, driving the air from her lungs.

"Jennifer is everything to us," the teenager growled into Nodoka's ear as she straddled her body; suddenly Nodoka began to understand how the youngest one had gotten her title. "She trusted you and you hurt her."

"Now now, it seems the fool doesn't even realize what she did," the oldest one said as she and the middle one moved up to stand on either side of Nodoka's head. The youngest one sneered at her.

"Jennifer is like our child, Bookstore. And you hurt her," Berserk said, her voice a growl. Nodoka noted to herself, absurdly, that Berserk had pointy canine teeth.

Nodoka focused very carefully on not agitating the Berserker Girl of the Wastes any further. "I'm sorry, but I just don't—"

"Accusing her of being in league with the averruncus," the oldest one said, clearly irritated.

The middle one knelt down and took Nodoka's head in her hands as she looked down at her, a patient but cold expression on her face. "You hurt her by thinking she could betray any of you. You are lucky the girl is gentle; otherwise, you might have received something worse than a headbutt."

Nodoka looked from face to face, from the Scourge of Whitefall's disgusted sneer to the barely contained rage that had given The Berserker her name to the cold distance in the Soul Stealer's eyes. "...I'm sorry, I didn't know. She never told any of us about her past, and when she said she had worked with Gaze—"

"'Was enslaved by'," Berserk said, looking down at Nodoka's face almost idly as she started playing with Nodoka's hair.

"Enslaved?" Nodoka asked nervously. She wanted to tell the girl to let go of her hair, but she thought it would just make her more angry.

Berserk nodded. "Enslaved. By Gaze and the averruncus at the orders of Dynamis and the Gravekeeper. They wanted to harness us—_US!—_and use us as their own personal guard dog! Tch! Idiots, all of them...the Bone Eater should've torn out their throats before they could even..." Berserk trailed off when Soul Stealer put a hand on her shoulder. She stood up, dragging Nodoka back to her feet. "But hey, now you know, right?" she asked as she made a show of dusting Nodoka off and then walloped her on the back.

Nodoka let out a startled grunt and staggered at the blow, but nodded in response to Berserk's question.

"Good. Now we'll have to cut this little lesson in Dream Diving short; it's time to go back, someone's at the door," Berserk said.

* * *

><p>Nodoka blinked and found herself lying on the couch, looking up at Jennifer's worried expression. The words of the three came back to her an instant later. "Ah...I'm sorry. For earlier..."<p>

Jennifer smiled, looking a little ashamed as she helped Nodoka up off the couch. She stood back, wringing her hands nervously. "It's okay...I knew you didn't know about it...I owe you an apology too..."

There was an awkward moment when the two of them just stood there, unwilling to meet each other's gaze, but it was quickly broken when Jennifer cocked her head to the side. "...I think someone's outside the door."


	15. Training: Setsuna and Kimi

Title: Training Sessions: Setsuna and Kimi

Characters: Sakurazaki Setsuna and Student Number 2, Yamamoto Kimi

Genre: General

Rating: E

Timeframe: July 15th, 2009, in Eva's Resort

Spoilers: None, not if you're reading Still Waters 3 Book 2, which this is a side story of.

* * *

><p>Setsuna shifted her stance slightly, and waited.<p>

Student Number 2, Yamamoto Kimi, standing across from her, shifted her own stance in response.

Setsuna mentally marked off another item on her internal checklist. Without a doubt, the girl standing across from her had some serious potential. The girl held her sword like a master swordsman, her grip perfect yet flexible, her movements fluid. Her stance wasn't exactly textbook perfect, but then again, neither was Setsuna's, and neither were the stances of a great many of her fellow members of the Shinmeiryu. One used what worked best for the individual, not what some court advisor had set down on paper two or three hundred years ago. One would use a stance that would allow them to use their strengths to their fullest advantage, while hiding their flaws...and _every _swordsman had his or her flaws, as Setsuna well knew. Kimi's stance seemed to be built around ease of movement, and changed subtly depending on any number of factors, from the build of the sword she was holding to the nature of the ground under her feet to the attributes of whoever she was facing. After a great deal of observation, Setsuna had discovered that Kimi wasn't consciously aware of the changes she made to her stance...it was just something she _did_. Setsuna approved. The best swordsmen were adaptable, able to adjust to any weapon, any situation, with ease. While she and Asuna had both had to work hard to gain their skills, others, like Setsuna's teacher Aoyama Motoko and even Konoka, seemed to have a natural feel for what they had been learning...and it appeared that Yamamoto Kimi was the same way. Kimi was doing far better than she should have, considering her lack of a teacher after the death of her mother several years previous. It was a shame, Setsuna thought, that Kimi's mother hadn't survived long enough to teach the girl some of the more advanced techniques.

Setsuna waited, watching, and grinned slightly. The girl was wary of her, as well she should be. But such a tactic was a doubled-edged sword...if one never attacks but only ever defends, one is always under another's power.

Setsuna darted forward, a deft movement of her hands bringing the tip of her long nodachi up and around, knocking Kimi's exquisite blade out of line, and then Setsuna froze, her body inches away from Kimi's, the back of her blade resting against the side of the girl's throat. Had this been a serious fight, Kimi would be dead, and one look at her face was all Setsuna needed to see that the girl knew it. Kimi's eyes were wide, but even so she was controlling her expression quite well and taking in detail of what was going on around her.

Setsuna slowly stepped back, dragging the long length of her sword back across the side of Kimi's neck, to emphasize the idea that a few inches of blade were all that was necessary to finish a person off if they made a mistake. There was no need for words; the girl understood perfectly.

And that, in a nutshell, was what Setsuna loved about the girl standing opposite. Yamamoto Kimi _understood_. One mistake, and it was all over. Better yet, the girl was incredibly perceptive; Setsuna doubted she'd be able to use the same method to bat Kimi's sword aside again.

Setsuna took the same stance, and Kimi shifted slightly. Setsuna paused for a moment, watching the girl, then darted forward, the same as the last time, and started the same move she had used before. Kimi moved her sword to take advantage of the holes in Setsuna's attack, but Setsuna abruptly flipped her sword up beside her, knocking Kimi's sword far out of line, and jabbed her left fist toward Kimi's face.

The expression on the girl's face was priceless. Her eyes went wide in surprise at the unexpected move, then narrowed in understanding even as she fell back to avoid Setsuna's fist, bringing her sword around in a move that would have cut Setsuna open if she hadn't been as good a swordsman as she was. Setsuna's nodachi was out of position, but she didn't use that; instead, she quickly drew a small knife hidden under her shirt and blocked the attack with it, six inches of steel holding back three feet, and paused for an instant to let Kimi see what had happened before forcing the girl's sword to the ground and pointing her nodachi at her face, one handed.

Kimi's eyes focused on the tip of the nodachi, hovering, unmoving, six inches in front of her face, and she slowly relaxed her body. Seeing this, Setsuna slowly relaxed as well and stepped back, returning her knife to its hidden sheath. Kimi returned the magnificent katana that had belonged to her mother to its sheath, decorated with silver dragons, and bowed.

Setsuna bowed back to her, and when she straightened up, Kimi was grinning at her.

"Thank you for showing those techniques to me, sempai."

Setsuna couldn't help but smile back at her...Kimi was so eager to learn! Setsuna wished she could convince her to go to Kyoto and train under Motoko-sensei for five years, but there wasn't any more time. Setsuna had to leave for Mundus Magicus soon, and the city would probably need the girl to help defend against anything that might show up and attack, thinking the city had become weak with Negi and the others gone. They would only be gone a month, though...there would be plenty of time when she got back. And if Kimi didn't want to go to Kyoto, Setsuna knew the news of such a student would probably even draw Motoko-sensei to Mahora herself so she could meet her. Setsuna couldn't help but grin at the prospect; it would be interesting.

"You're welcome, Kimi-chan."

The girl smiled more widely at her, and Setsuna smiled back as she picked up Yuunagi's sheath from where she had dropped it earlier.

She couldn't wait to see Motoko's reaction...!

* * *

><p><em>Author's Notes: Just a brief moment of time during one of the many training sessions the members of the new class have had with the old. I'll probably post up a few more, before too long. I hope you liked it!<em>


	16. Teenage Angst

Title: Teenage Angst

Characters: Ku Fei and the new class's Nakamura Sachiko

Genre: Angst

Rating: E

Timeframe: Chapter 28 of SW3 Book 2

Spoilers: None, assuming you've read up to Chapter 28 of SW3 Book 2

* * *

><p><em>"We all struggled at that time. Just imagine it: you've lived a normal life since you were born, maybe getting into the occasional fight or dealing with life's occasional hiccup, thinking the world's all <em>normal_ and _dependable_, and then _BOOM!_ You suddenly find yourself thrust into an unfamiliar aspect of reality_ _you didn't even think _existed _outside of anime and video games_. _Sounds good, right? Maybe; up until the point where you realize you're surrounded by beautiful, experienced people who you know, deep in your heart, that you can't ever match because no matter how hard to try to catch up, they're trying _that much harder_, and you're always alone, always watching them from behind and no matter how hard you try, you just can't ever catch up. That sort of thing can g__et to a person after a while."_

_Interviews, by 'A. K.' _

* * *

><p>Nakamura Sachiko, class rep of class 3-A, sat on the edge of a low boulder by herself in one of the forest environments of Eva's resort, her stomach still sore from when Kai had hit her in their most recent spar. '<em>Kai beat me...Kai barely even knows what she's doing! Ever since the festival, and that tournament...'<em> Sachiko's thoughts trailed off, shying away from that terrible woman at the tournament, and she shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. '_I feel like...like I'm dragging everyone down.'_ What would happen, she wondered, if something happened and she had to face an opponent she couldn't hope to defeat in order to save someone's life? Everyone else in her training group was already so strong... Kagami had her magic, Taro had her regeneration and ki, Possum was a vampire...all she had going for her was an unusual fighting style and an authoritative voice. She always let her emotions get the better of her no matter how hard she tried to hold back her anger, her body was weak, and to top it all off she had a low pain threshold...even a light punch would send her gasping to the ground with tears in her eyes.

Sachiko shuddered. She didn't want to think about it, but it was looking increasingly as if she was...was _useless_.

Sachiko shuddered again, harder, and wrapped her arms tighter around herself.

What was she going to do...? It felt like she was wasting everyone's time, from her teammates to the older girls and teachers training her. She knew everyone was trying to be supportive but that only made her guilt worse, and now she couldn't even hold her own against Kondo Kai, who, despite being an oni, had, until defeating Sachiko in a spar session, been widely considered to be the weakest among the regular training teams.

A bubble of rage welled up and she sneered at the thought of the oni girl, so friendly and helpful and _stupid_, and _weak_, and...

Sachiko slumped a little more and the jealous feeling passed. Kai was all of those things except maybe stupid, and she had beaten Sachiko, fair and square. That fact hurt more than anything else. Sachiko, who had once made a regular thing of beating the likes of Urashima Taro in spar sessions, hadn't improved a bit, while everyone around her rushed forward, leaving her trailing far behind. And now she was losing to _everyone_.

"Do you mind if I sit down?"

Sachiko froze, her eyes going wide in horrified realization at the fact that someone had seen her sitting there alone, crying her eyes out. The visitor spoke again before she could come up with a reply.

"...I'll just sit down then."

Sachiko made a noncommittal noise in response; it was all she could manage as she desperately tried to wipe her eyes dry. She had an image to maintain; she was the strong, silent, class rep, she _never_ cried.

She tried to watch by the side of her eye as someone sat down next to her. It took her a moment to recognize one of Negi-sensei's close friends, a dark skinned woman with light hair and a faint resemblance to the main sponsors of the Mahora Festival back in June, that royal family from Molmol. The mere thought of the festival itself was enough to bring those awful memories rushing back, and Sachiko looked down at the ground and swore to herself she wouldn't cry.

She just barely managed it.

"I saw you come here," the woman said in a friendly tone as she leaned back on the boulder and idly kicked her feet in the air; the woman's feet didn't quite reach the ground. Sachiko stared at the woman's shoes for a moment, shocked that she was shorter than Sachiko. "I thought you might like a little company."

Sachiko stiffened up and looked away. "I came here to avoid company," she said quietly.

The strange woman didn't seem to notice the pointedness in Sachiko's words; instead, she flopped back and put her arms behind her head as she relaxed on top of the boulder, and Sachiko looked over at her in surprise. Seeing this woman standing next to Negi-sensei, talking and training and doing morning exercises with him, she seemed larger than life; the training battles Sachiko had watched the woman participate in had only enhanced the effect. But, once she got looking at her, she realized the woman was short, almost tiny; she was easily half a head shorter than Sachiko herself, her body thin and fragile-seeming, almost childlike. Her mind tried to rebel at the strange disparity between what the woman had always seemed to be and what Sachiko was seeing now. The woman grinned up at her, a pleasant, open smile, and Sachiko looked away.

"Language too smart; I not understand," the woman said.

'_Ku Fei, that's her name,'_ Sachiko thought to herself after an awkward silence. '_How can I tell her to go away without offending her?' _she wondered. She _really_ just wanted to be alone right then, not hanging out on a boulder with some strange woman she didn't even really _know_... '_Wait...why is she speaking like that now? Wasn't she speaking normally earlier?' _She glanced over at the woman again and her thought processes ground to a halt.

'_She's asleep.'_

Ku Fei let out a little snore.

'_Why is she asleep? Didn't she come to cheer me up or something...?'_

Ku Fei twitched her nose and let out another snore, this one a little louder than the first.

Sachiko just stared at her for a moment, and finally sighed and slid off the rock.

"You're not going already, are you?"

Sachiko looked back up at the woman, who was sitting up, grinning at her. "What do you want from me?" she demanded, annoyed that the woman was _clearly _messing with her. She was tired of feeling bad, tired of constantly losing, tired of people _looking _at her. She just wanted to be left alone, maybe crawl off into a hole somewhere and die. Anything so she wouldn't have to face the others anymore.

"Nothing much," Ku Fei said. "Just thought you needed some company." She idly swung her legs, and Sachiko was again struck by how small the woman seemed.

"I _need_ to be left alone," Sachiko snapped, her anger finally getting the better of her. She felt guilty almost immediately.

"You using smart talk again, I no understand-aruyo~," she said, looking for all the world like a clueless idiot.

Sachiko just stared at her. Never had she met someone so...so _infuriatingly friendly_ as this bizarre woman. "I know you can understand what I say; you talk to Negi-sensei all the time," she said as sternly as she could.

Ku Fei's grin widened as she hopped down off the boulder, puffed her chest out importantly, and clasped her hands behind her back as she started to slowly pace back and forth in front of Sachiko.

"Can you please move? I want to leave," Sachiko said, trying to rein in her temper.

"No understand-"

"Please, just move!" Sachiko said in frustration as tears started to well up in her eyes again. She quickly turned away from the woman and frantically wiped at her eyes; it was times like this that she was glad she didn't wear any makeup.

"You feel pretty bad, don't you?" Ku Fei's voice had become soft and kind, losing the wild enthusiasm behind her earlier claims of not understanding the Japanese language.

Sachiko shrunk in on herself a little. "Go away. Please..."

"Like everyone else has run off ahead and left you behind," Ku Fei continued.

More tears came and Sachiko tried to wipe her eyes again as a hitching breath escaped her throat.

"And then you lose a match, or barely win, and you _know _you were right about them, right there in your heart, and you want to shrivel up and die, but you _can't_, because you know they would worry about you, and you can't have that, oh no."

"Sh-shut up," Sachiko said frantically, her breath hitching again.

"And then you have a crazy idea, like maybe running away to somewhere else, somewhere where you don't have to see all those people who are so far ahead of you anymore, somewhere where instead of being a medium-sized fish in a big pond, you can be the big fish in a small pond."

"J-j-just leave me alone...!" Sachiko squealed as she dropped down into a squat, hiding her face with her hands.

"Running away doesn't get you anywhere," Ku Fei said with finality.

"...then what?" Sachiko asked miserably. She hadn't asked for Ku Fei to come and lecture her; she just wanted her gone...! How dare she act like she understood what she was feeling? How _dare_ she?! But Sachiko's anger, normally a hot presence in the back of her mind, refused to flare up again...she just felt too miserable to fight back anymore.

"That's when you find your true strength," Ku Fei said, her voice full of power.

Sachiko continued to cover her face and hunched over further. '_What is she talking about? 'Find my __true strength'? What does she think this is? This _is _my true strength...I'll never be as good as them, never!_'

"You'll find out who you _really_ are, under the masks you show the world," Ku Fei continued, as if Sachiko had asked her to explain further. "You'll learn what you can _really_ do, and from there you can grow, and grow, and grow, and then one day you'll realize how strong you _really_ are, and the way your friends _really _see you. No one's skill only lies in battle, you know," she said in a chiding voice. "Everything relates to everything; everything is in balance, and that helps us become stronger."

Sachiko felt despair creeping back in; she hadn't asked for any mystical-sounding gibberish about balance, either. "Go away..." she said, utterly miserable.

Ku Fei let out an amused snort. "Told you, don't understand your smart talk-aru. Keep it simple please~" When Sachiko remained silent for a moment, she leaned back against the boulder and slid down to a seated position, and reached over to tousle Sachiko's hair. Sachiko didn't even have the motivation to try and swat her hand away. "You're in your darkest hour, Sachi-chan," Ku Fei said softly, pulling Sachiko into a one-armed hug. Again, Sachiko didn't respond. "It always gets darkest just before the dawn, right? Right. Just keep it up, you'll work through this, you'll become strong again in your own way. It's happened to all of us," Ku Fei said, her eyes seeming to focus on something far away as she recalled those memories. "Mana, Asuna, me, even Setsuna, twice! But we all worked our way through it, and we're stronger now because of it."

"...how?" Sachiko muttered, barely audible.

Ku Fei smiled. "Lots of ways," she said brightly. "Practice your skills like Asuna, read a bunch of books like Yue and Nodoka, have some kinda mental breakdown like Setsuna, or borrow the powers of a god, like me!" she said. "Ah _ha!_ I heard that!"

Sachiko covered her mouth and looked away, trying to hide the fact that she had let a small giggle slip through at Ku Fei's ridiculous claims. '_Why am I laughing at her? She's annoying...!'_ Sachiko told herself, but she couldn't make herself believe it. She chalked the giggle up to total exhaustion and stress, and tried to forget about it. "Leave me alone," she said, more forcefully as she squirmed out of Ku Fei's grasp and stood up, facing away from her. Much to her surprise, Ku Fei let her go and stood up as well.

"Okay, but remember what I said! And when you come back, I want to be the first to see how far you've come, okay?" she said brightly.

Sachiko muttered something noncommittal in response and stumbled off into the forest, leaving her boulder and Ku Fei behind. She was really quite annoyed with Ku Fei for poking her nose into her business like that, but she found she couldn't get _mad_ at her for it; she just didn't have the energy for it anymore.

Once she was far enough away for the trees to hide the other woman from sight, Sachiko found another boulder, this one with a nice curve that she had found through experience was quite comfortable to lay on, and stretched herself out on it, exhausted. Had she been out in the forest by the campus, she would never have let her guard down enough to do what she was about to do, but she wasn't _in_ the forest outside in the real world, was she?. She laid down on the comfortable rock and soon fell into a deep, restful sleep for the first time since before the festival almost a month before.

Things were bad, but they would get better, in time. Ku Fei had helped her understand that, if nothing else. She was just in a bad spot; she would just have to stick with it and see it through to the end, and come out stronger for having experienced it. She wasn't ready to face her friends yet, not by a long shot, but she was no longer looking ahead at a world that held nothing but darkness for her; there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and she knew she would survive.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Notes<strong>: So...Ku Fei seems to know what Sachiko's going through? Perhaps we'll see more on this in some future story collection, such as 'Meet The New Class', which I hope to post between the end of SW3 Book 2 and the beginning of SW3 Book 3. I hope you look forward to it!_


	17. Comparing Swords

Title: Comparing Swords

Characters: Kagurazaka Asuna, Student Number 17, Endo Haru

Genre: General

Rating: E

Timeframe: During Chapter 28, after Youko, Haru, and Keiko's return from Kyoto

Spoilers: None, assuming you've read up to the "A Fox in Kyoto" arc

* * *

><p>"So...like this then?" Endo Haru asked as she held the enormous lightly curved sword she'd found in Kyoto up one handed above her head, bits of sunlight filtering down through the branches above shining down on her.<p>

"Hmm..." Asuna frowned as she looked at the way the girl was holding the sword, then looked back down at the laptop computer she had borrowed. "That _still_ doesn't look right," she said, then turned the laptop around so Haru could see. "See how this guy is holding it?" she said, pointing at the screen.

Haru looked over at the picture, and sighed. It was obvious that the guy in the picture had no idea what he was doing; he was trying to hold his sword like he was some kind of European knight or something... She wondered why Asuna didn't seem to understand her problem with that sort of stance. It was obvious the sword she was holding wasn't built for chopping things up; it was meant for _slicing_.

"Hmm..." Asuna said, frowning. "Then again, something about that doesn't look right," she said.

Haru heaved another sigh. Why had she even bothered to ask Asuna to show her how to use a giant sword, anyway...? An image of the only other giant sword user around flashed into her head, and she shuddered.

There was _no way_ she was asking Scary Max-sensei for a primer in giant sword use. Regular training from him was plenty, thanks. More than enough, really. _Way _more than enough.

"Can I hold it?" Asuna asked.

Haru looked at the woman, wide eyed, then down at her sword, then back up to Asuna. "Do you have to...?" she asked. She didn't like other people holding the sword; they usually didn't want to give it back...

"Well yeah," Asuna said, grinning at her as she stood up and put the laptop she had been using down on the stump she had been sitting on. "It won't be as good as having someone who actually knows how to use it teach you, but it's obvious that looking at pictures on the internet isn't going to help here. And besides, nobody else around here seems to know how to use a sword like that," she said, pointing at Haru's sword. "I'm good with swords though, and I've used a lot of different kinds. Maybe I'll be able to figure something out if I swing it around a couple times."

Haru gave her sword one last long, lingering, look, and handed it over.

Asuna's eyes widened in delight as soon as she took hold of the sword's handle. "Oh _wow_, it's got some kind of rejuvenation enchantment on it!" she said excitedly.

"Um...it actually just temporarily holds back tiredness and clears your mind," Haru offered, desperately wanting to take the sword back. "And some kind of purification thing too..." This was the crucial point, the point where she had almost had trouble getting people to give the sword back a few times before. She watched Asuna closely; the so-called 'rejuvenation effect' was _highly _addictive. Dangerous too, she mused as she recalled the way all her exhaustion had rushed back upon her full force the instant she had let go of it the first time.

"Ooh, sounds useful, but that rejuvenation effect could be a problem too," Asuna said as she lifted the sword up, testing its weight.

"Y-yeah..." Haru said nervously, watching the sword as Asuna started moving it around, trying to get a feel for it. She was doing it wrong, and Haru's hands twitched. She wanted to take the sword back.

"Hmm..." Asuna said. She paused for a moment, looking at the sword. "Looks like one of those Chinese dao swords, but..." She paused for a moment, cocked her head to the side, then swung the sword around as she spun once in place.

Haru let out a gasp and ducked as the sword's blade passed barely a foot over her head; she had been inching forward without realizing it.

"You okay?" Asuna asked, looking at her. When Haru nodded, she gave her a serious look. "Stay over by the stump until I'm done, okay? That could have been ugly...this guy's razor sharp," she said, looking at the blade. She smiled down at it.

Haru went over to where Asuna had been sitting, picked up the laptop computer, and sat down, holding it in her lap; somehow it felt better to have something she could hold on to while she watched Asuna with her sword.

"Now, that spin...it felt close, but not quite right," Asuna muttered. "Let's see..."

The next several minutes were an agony of waiting for Haru as she watched Asuna play with the sword until suddenly Asuna grunted in surprise and her eyes widened.

"Oh!" Asuna said in surprise. "_Oh!_" She grinned as she spun in a circle, the sword following along smoothly, slicing through the air. "_That's _it...!" Asuna said excitedly. "_That's _how you do it! Are you watching, Haru-chan?" she asked as she paused in her movements to look back at her.

Haru nodded dumbly, struck by the beauty of the sword in the hands of someone competent in its use. Haru didn't know what Asuna had done to figure it out, but whatever it was, she had somehow hit on the perfect way to use the sword. Asuna walked in a slow circle, constantly moving, the sword flying smoothly around her in intricate spirals of motion, and Haru watched in awe as she realized that she had come to _exactly_ the right person to learn from.

Asuna was laughing, moving faster and faster, her eyes wild. "Just like one of those kung fu movies!" she said excitedly as she went into an intricate pattern of thrusts, slices and spins so quick that Haru's eyes couldn't keep up.

When it was finally over, Asuna, looking perhaps the happiest Haru had ever seen her, trotted over and held out the sword, grinning wide.

Haru hesitated. "Don't you...don't you want to keep it?" she asked nervously. Nobody else she had shown it to had ever given it up so easily.

Asuna shook her head. "No, it's your sword, Haru-chan." She smiled wider.

Haru reached out hesitantly and took the sword by the handle, and took it back. She looked up at Asuna, still smiling hugely as if she had just had the most fun she'd ever had in her whole life. "Aren't you tired...?"

Asuna looked at her blankly for a moment before it seemed a lightbulb went on in her head. "Oh! You mean the rejuvenation? No, I didn't let it affect me," she said lightly as she put her hands on her hips. "But that was so much fun! I've gotta get me one of those! Do you know what it's called?"

Haru shook her hands as she put the sword back into the sheath the Shinmeiryu had provided for it. "People were just calling it a big 'dao' sword."

"Yeah, looks like a dao alright," Asuna said, cocking her head to the side. "Different from a normal one, though, and not just how big it is. I know a good swordsmith...maybe I can get him to go into Eva's resort and make me one of those before we leave in a few days," Asuna said, looking thoughtfully at Haru's sword. "In the meantime, let's get you some training on that thing!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Notes<strong>: If you're confused about Haru's sword, go back and reread the "A Fox in Kyoto" arc at the end of SW3 Book 2, specifically the second chapter of the arc. I'll wait. … Done? Now, the sword is what's commonly called (on the internet) a Bagua Dao, a huge sword of the 'dao' style. This particular one is actually a lost legendary artifact that makes the user feel refreshed at all times while holding the sword, and also has a powerful purification effect. It also has the side effect of being an instant hangover cure._

_As a bonus, here's the story of how Haru's legendary magical chinese-style sword ended up in a run down 1800s Japanese mansion in Kyoto, in folktale format._

* * *

><p><span>Title<span>: The Tale Of The Young Man And The Oni

Characters: The Young Man, The Traveler, The Oni, The Maiden, The Foolish Villagers

Genre: Folktale

Rated: In violent folktale tradition, it's rated G

Timeframe: ~1000 A.D., give or take 500 years or so

Spoilers: None, really.

* * *

><p>Long ago, in the days when the wild oni and tengu still lived freely in the mountains and youkai still roamed the land, there was a village at the foot of a mountain. On the night of every full moon, a great wild and wicked oni and his followers would come down from the mountain and demand the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden. Many brave men thought to go and face him in battle, but none ever returned, and the village suffered long under the terrible oni as all the beautiful maidens were taken away one by one.<p>

One day a young man, upon returning from a trip to the neighboring village, found that his neighbor's daughter had been given as the most recent sacrifice and became enraged, for he had no family and had hoped to have her as his wife. But, no matter how he berated them, none dared to mount a rescue; the oni had demanded a sacrifice in exchange for their lives, and a sacrifice he had been given. If the sacrifice was asked to be returned, none knew what terrible fate would befall the village, for the oni was devious and cruel. The young man took up a spear and tried to go up the mountain to face the oni himself, but the elder ordered him bound and put into a cell, so great was his fear of upsetting the oni.

The next day, a wandering traveler entered the town and, upon hearing the young man's shouts, inquired about the purpose of his confinement. Upon wheedling the story of the oni out of his hosts with drink and lies about the splendor of his host's house and the great beauty of his ugly daughter, the traveler, being quite a drinker himself, matched drinks with his hosts that night until all but the traveler had drunk themselves into a stupor, and quickly left the house. Upon approaching the shed that served as the young man's cell, the traveler knocked on the side of the shed.

"Who is there?" the young man asked.

"Is it true you wish to slay the oni?" the traveler whispered, so as not to be overheard.

"With all my heart," the young man replied. "It has taken my love; I wish to have her back."

"Very well. I will free you, and accompany you on your quest," the traveler said, and opened the door of the shed. He cut the young man's bindings and freed him, gave him a spear, and both headed for the path up the mountain.

The path was long and steep, but the young man charged ahead regardless, so intent was he on saving his beloved from the evil oni. The traveler followed along, easily keeping pace despite his excess of years until they arrived at a wide forested area between two mountains, and they knew they had arrived at the great oni's home, for a human skull stood perched upon a post set in the ground, as a warning against any who approached as to their fate should they decide to enter the oni's territory. The sight brought the young man pause, but the traveler continued on past the young man, and so the young man saw the great sword on the traveler's back.

"That is a great sword for one of an advanced age," the young man said. "Can you use it?" he asked, for he found himself suddenly overwhelmed by fear that a madman had just led him to his death.

The traveler turned to him and spoke. "Do not worry for me, look to yourself."

They continued on, creeping among the trees until they came upon a hole in the ground, from which rose sounds of a drunken party, and the smell of blood and cooking meat.

Fearing the worst, the young man brandished his sword and rushed into the hole. The traveler followed.

Inside the hole was a long tunnel through the rock, which ended in a wide chamber, well lit with torches and a great fire in the center. And now the young man cried out in horror, for human blood and bones and other remains were strewn everywhere. The traveler tried to show him where the young woman was tied in a corner, but it was too late; the great evil oni had noticed them and stood to his full height.

The young man cried out again at this terrifying sight, but the traveler spoke into his ear. "Is this what your love is worth?"

The young man apologized and brandished his spear at the oni, but the traveler again laid a hand upon his arm.

"Do not trouble yourself with the oni; look to the girl." And the young man was grateful to the traveler, though worried for his safety as the old man removed the great sword from his back and announced himself. "I am called Yang, and this is my sword, the Devil Slayer! Even the gods cry in fear when it is drawn! Who are you?"

"I will not tell you, for you will soon be dead," the oni replied as it raised its club.

Upon seeing this, the traveler turned to the young man and the maiden. "Flee, and do not fear for me. I have lived a long life, and have much longer to live still."

The young man and the maiden thanked him sincerely and fled the cave. Upon exiting, they found the clearing filled with the evil oni's followers, and reentered the cave, from which the sounds of a great battle came. The maiden was afraid, but the young man, trapped in the cave between the oni and his followers, knowing death was near and regretting his decision to leave the traveler to his fate, resolved to help the traveler fight before he died. Leaving the maiden in a hidden cranny in the rocks of the tunnel, he swiftly made his way to the cavern and there found the traveler and the oni locked in mortal combat. The young man rushed forward, brandishing his spear, and the oni was distracted. The traveler, seeing this, used his sword to cut the oni's belly.

The oni roared and hit the traveler with his great spiked club, killing him, and the young man fled, for the oni, mortally wounded smashed his club against the sides of the cavern in his death throes, and the walls and ceiling cracked and began to fall. As the young man retrieved the maiden, he heard the oni shouting.

"With my last breath, I curse this land, and I curse you and your family for all time to come! May my hatred for you never die!" the oni said, for it had been the young man's sudden appearance that led to his mortal wound.

"Then I promise my family will stay on this land until you are gone forever!" the young man cried out in anger. "My family will remove your curse from this land, and none will ever know you lived here!"

Having spoken so rashly, the young man took the maiden and fled the cave as it collapsed behind him. The oni's followers, knowing their master had died, fled, and the young man and the maiden ran all the way back to the village, where everyone had heard the noise of the oni's club thrashing the earth and were afraid. The villagers, upon hearing the story of the traveler and the oni, were ashamed for letting their fear of the oni control them so. The neighbors gave their daughter's hand in marriage and many acres of farmland to the young man in thanks for his courage in freeing the village from the wicked oni, and they married and had many children, and built a great house over the oni's cave in order to protect the village and surrounding countryside from his curse, and the family flourished for all of their days.

~_The End_~

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Notes 2<strong>: Or something. Now, in case you didn't recognize "Yang" (which I'm betting every last person reading this didn't), he's actually Lu Dongbin/Lu Tung-Pin, one of the Eight Immortals from Chinese mythology. Look him up on wikipedia...it's pretty interesting. Anyway, he has a sword called Chan-yao Kuai, or, as I saw it translated on one site, 'Devil Slayer', which has a certain ring to it. Anyway, that's Haru's sword. The young man in the story above founded the Shinmeiryu, or 'God's Cry' school of swordsmanship in Kyoto, on the site of the future Konoe compound. The family grew and flourished, and soon other buildings grew up around it, and in the late 1800s the main house was rebuilt with a more western style in mind, though it retained many of its cultural design asthetics. However, someone digging underground in the late stages of the house's rebuilding stumbled upon the oni's cave, accidentally unleashing the oni's curse (and, incidentally, finding the sword Lu left behind; being immortal, he had dug himself out several centuries earlier at the latest). The Shinmeiryuu helped everyone who hadn't died yet flee the house and did their best to seal the oni's curse, though they weren't able to destroy it completely, leaving it dangerous for anyone to approach the house. Ultimately, they sealed off the whole around around the house with charms and things, and they were just about the only people (except the occasional unlucky person who stumbled past the wards...everyone who entered the house not knowing what it was ended up dead) to ever visit the place (to update charms and check the seals) until Haru accidentally barreled through and unsealed the area. If you read the second chapter of the 'A Fox In Kyoto' arc, you know what happened after that._


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